LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AM 



THE PEOPLE 



VERSUS 



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 



SPEECHES OF 

JOHN B. VlNCH, 

DELIVERED IN THE 

PROHIBITION CAMPAIGNS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. 
TWENTY-FOURTH (REVISED) EDITION. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. N. STEARNS. 
EDITED BY CHARLES ARNOLD McCULLY. 



M Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side ; 
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight, 
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, 
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that. 




NEW YORK: 

Published by the R. W. GK Ix>r 

B. F. PARKER, R. W. G. Secretary. 
1887. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY 
J. K STEARNS, PmtalistLing Agent. 



Literature Com?mttee : 
R. W. G. Lodge, I. O. G. T. 



Edward 0. Jenkins' Sons, 

Printers and Stereotypers, 

20 North William St., New York. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Constitutional Prohibition is fast becoming the 
watchword of the hour. The people of the nation are 
becoming more and more restive under the increasing 
burden of the liquor traffic, and are determined to take 
the question into their own hands. This is a govern- 
ment of the people, for the people, and by the people. 
The license system has been tried for more than two 
hundred years, and under its fostering care the evils of 
intemperance have grown to colossal proportions. High- 
licensed whiskey destroys manhood and debases woman- 
hood, and beggars children just as quickly and as fast 
as the lowest of the low-priced licenses. The evil is in 
the drink. The traffic is on trial for its life. The peo- 
ple, in their sovereign capacity at the ballot-box, are 
the highest tribunal and the fountain of all power. 
This is the next great question before the American 
people to be settled at the ballot-box. The conflict 
between the saloon and the home will continue with 
increasing force and power until it is settled, and set- 
tled right. When settled by the voice of the people 
in their sovereign capacity, it should go into the bed- 
rock of the Constitution. Already the States of Kansas, 
Maine, Iowa, and Rhode Island have, by overwhelming 
majorities, given prohibition place in the fundamental 
laws of the State. Iowa was cheated out of a constitu- 
tional amendment by a technicality, but the agitation 
has given her an iron-clad prohibitory law which has 
been of untold benefit to the State. A majority of 
votes were undoubtedly cast for the amendment in 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

Michigan, but the people of that State, too, have by- 
fraud been deprived of the fruits of their victory. 

The Legislatures of Texas, Tennessee, West Virginia, 
Oregon, and Pennsylvania have voted to submit a pro- 
hibitory amendment to a direct vote of the people, and 
in a dozen more States constitutional prohibition is 
the leading question before the people. Hence it is 
all-important that the people should be thoroughly 
informed and enlightened upon every phase of this 
most important subject. Of all the men who have been 
before the American public to discuss this question, Mr. 
John B. Finch stands foremost for clear perception, 
sound logic, apt illustration, and convincing argument. 
The lectures which are gathered in this volume, though 
delivered in different parts of the country to meet spe- 
cial emergencies, will be found to contain argument 
and statistics of very great value in the Constitutional 
Amendment campaigns now being carried on in differ- 
ent parts of the country. Mr. Finch has dedicated his 
great talents and wide-spread influence to the cause of 
Prohibition. He has made it his life study, and this 
volume goes forth as his free-will offering for the cause , 
to which he has dedicated himself. 

The prohibition of the traffic in intoxicating bever- 
ages, is the only proper solution and righteous settle- 
ment of this whole question. Wherever honestly tried 
it has proved the greatest of blessings. In Maine, Kan- 
sas, and Iowa, the volume of liquor sold and drank has 
been reduced tenfold. Blessings follow in its train. 
Prosperity comes in when liquor goes out. Prohibition 
by Constitutional Amendment, vitalized by Prohibitory 
Statutes stringently enforced, will usher in an era of 
peace, prosperity and happiness never before known or 
realized in the civilized world. J. N. STEARNS. 

New York, May t, 1887. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction, . . . . . . . . iii 

I, Why Constitutional Prohibition, . . . i 
II. A Statement of the Case, 13 

III. Why the Indictment is Pressed, . .35 

IV. an Examination of the Issues, . . . .65 
V. Examination of the Issues and Defence, . 83 

VI. The Defence Reviewed, 109 

VII. The Questions Asked by the Jury Answered, 133 

VIII. The Defence Answered, 155 

IX. What, Why, and How, . . ■ . . . .194 

X. Compensation, . . . . . . . . 218 

XL The Practicability of the Movement Proved 

by its Success, 238 



THE PEOPLE 



VERSUS 



THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 



i. 

WHY CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 

An Address delivered at the banquet of the Boston Social Temper- 
ance Union, in Tremont Temple, December, 1SS3. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : A joint committee of 
the different temperance organizations and churches 
undertook, last winter, to secure the submission to the 
electors of an amendment to your State Constitution, 
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic bev- 
erages. This winter the campaign is to be renewed, 
and your Secretary, Mr, Jewell, has asked me, as one 
living in that section of our country where the move- 
ment for constitutional prohibition originated, to give 
you the reason which induced Western workers to 
adopt that plan of work. I do this with pleasure, be- 
cause practical trial and experience have convinced me 
of its practicability and desirability. You, Eastern 
workers, fully conversant with your people and social 
customs, can judge for yourselves whether the reasons 
w r hich led us to adopt the plan are good reasons for its 
adoption here. 

It seemed to us that any plan of work to produce 
permanent results must accomplish three things: 1. 
Unite all enemies of the liquor traffic. 2. Thoroughly 
educate and prepare the people for correct legislation ; 
3. Guarantee a thorough trial of the law before its 
change or repeal. The purpose of the work is the pre- 
vention of the evil results of the alcoholic liquor traffic 
by the destruction of the traffic. The traffic being a 



2 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

social institution, is entitled to protection the same as 
other social institutions so long as its results are a bless- 
ing to society. The demand for its destruction is based, 
not on the fact that it is called the liquor traffic, but 
because it has proved itself an enemy of the purposes 
for which society exists. The traffic was allowed to 
develop by society to bless man, and has always 
debauched and degraded him. It is aggressive in its 
viciousness, and the people are forced to adopt meas- 
ures to defend themselves. No sane man will under- 
take to defend the record, or to justify the effects of 
the traffic. All persons admit the desirability, but 
some question the practicability of its destruction. Its 
destruction can only come after the people are fully 
convinced of the truth of the charges against it, because 
its destruction means a social revolution which can only 
be accomplished by the affirmative act of the people. 
The constitutional is the American method of revolu- 
tion. " Government is aboriginal with man," wrote a 
great statesman ; which was simply saying that a man 
was a social animal, that society was necessary for his 
development, and that the conflicting interests of the 
members of society make necessary an institution of 
justice called the State. As man develops socially, in- 
tellectually, morally, the government must develop to 
meet and settle the new social problems which man's 
changing conditions constantly bring to the front. The 
lower orders of government have never made provision 
for this development, and the people in them have de- 
veloped like lower orders of life, which, when the cov- 
ering, or skin, prevents further growth, throw it off, and 
take a new one. The pathway of advancement in such 
governments has been a pathway of assassination, of 
tumult, of revolution. The men who settled Massa- 
chusetts were loyal to the British form of government, 
and only became disloyal when common dangers, com- 
mon suffering, and common interests had destroyed 
stratified society, and developed a brotherhood. A 
government good enough for a society composed of 
nobles, gentlemen, and peasants was not adapted to 
the new social conditions developed by the peculiar so- 
cial life of the colonies, and the people became restless, 



WHY CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 3 

riotous, and when the king refused their prayers for 
new forms, rebellious. Seven years of suffering, agony, 
and bloodshed threw off the old form of government, 
and soon delegates met to determine the conditions of 
the new. They were broad, liberal men. They did 
not think that all political wisdom would die with them, 
but, on the contrary/said, " This people will develop, 
new social problems will constantly arise, and the gov- 
ernment we are forming must be so arranged as to meet 
and settle them, or the people will reject it as worthless, 
and form one that will assist to advance 7 not impede 
mankind. " They realized they could only prevent rev- 
olution by providing for peaceable evolution. In the 
constitutions framed and adopted, Bancroft says : " To 
perfect the system, and forever prevent revolution, power 
is reserved to the people, by amendments of their con- 
stitution, to remove every imperfection which time 
may lay bare, and to adapt it for unforeseen contingen- 
cies." American constitutions provide that when any 
great question affecting the social happiness or pros- 
perity of the people is to be determined, the legislature 
shall, by constitutional amendment, submit it to the 
people, for them to examine and determine; that they 
shall have ample time to discuss, examine, and form 
correct opinions, and then, on a day set apart, shall go 
to the ballot-box and deposit their written opinions, 
and a majority of those opinions shall decide the action 
of the government. The provision makes American 
progress an evolution by ballots, instead of a revolution 
by bullets. 

The alcoholic liquor traffic is an old institution, and 
the charges urged against it are that its whole results 
debauch and degrade society. The Prohibitionists say 
that it is a school of crime, vice, and immorality ; and 
that a republican form of government, based on intelli- 
gence and morality, must destroy the traffic to pre- 
serve its own existence. These charges are grave ones, 
and if sustained no excuse can be offered for allowing 
the traffic to continue. The question is one of fact. Is 
the traffic guilty? Do Prohibitionists tell the truth? 
The jury to determine the matter must be the people, 
because in free America all political power is inherent 



4 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

in the people. The existence of the business must be 
sanctioned by law, or prohibited by law, and the people 
are the only law-makers. Bancroft says : " As the sea 
is made up of drops, American society is composed of 
separate, free, and constantly moving atoms, ever in re- 
ciprocal action — advancing, receding, crossing, strug- 
gling against each other, and with each other, so that 
the institutions and laws of the country rise out of the 
masses of individual thought, which, like the waters of 
the ocean, are rolling on evermore. ,, Laws are of two 
kinds — organic, which are adopted by the people by di- 
rect vote ; and functional, which the people adopt by 
delegated vote ; and the question for Prohibitionists to 
determine is, whether it is better to have the people act 
directly or by delegation in settling the existence or 
non-existence of the liquor traffic. Its destruction 
means a great social change, and I do not believe it 
wise or best to attempt it by statutory law. Statutory 
law is passed by representatives of the people, using the 
people's power. The representatives are few in num- 
ber, subject to influence of popular passion and excite- 
ment, to say nothing of other means of influence which 
it is charged are used. The legislators as a class are 
partisans, who unite party success with all questions of 
public policy; and the laws they pass are subject to 
modification or repeal at any time by themselves or 
succeeding legislatures. On the contrary, constitutional 
law can only be adopted by the whole people, after 
calm and mature deliberation, the provisions for amend- 
ment preventing unwise and hasty action. The law 
once adopted it is guaranteed a fair trial, because its 
repeal is just as difficult as its adoption. The constitu- 
tion belongs to the whole people. It does not speak 
of Republicans, Democrats, or Prohibitionists. An 
amendment is submitted, not to Prohibitionists as Pro- 
hibitionists, not to Democrats as Democrats, not to Re- 
publicans as Republicans, but to electors as electors. The 
issue raised by the amendment asked by the committee, 
would be, Shall the constitution be amended ? The elec- 
tors would ask, " Why amend the constitution ? " To 
which the Prohibitionists would reply, " To destroy the 
alcoholic liquor traffic." " Ought the traffic to be de- 



WHY CONSTITUTIONAL .PROHIBITION. 5 

stroyed?" the elector would ask. "Yes," would an- 
swer the Prohibitionists. " No," would answer the 
drunkard-maker ; and the issue would be joined before 
the jury, which must finally settle the question. Each 
elector will be called on to express his opinion, and 
wishing to do so intelligently, will investigate the whole 
matter. The drunkard-makers have always said, " Tem- 
perance men are fanatics and fools," and the campaign 
will give them opportunity to go before the people and 
disprove, if they can, the charges against their business, 
and convict the temperance men as slanderers and ma- 
ligners. The people will read, examine, think ; and 
whatever is their decision, public opinion will occupy 
that plane. A statute law expresses only the will of the 
legislature, and is always open to the attack, " The peo- 
ple are not educated up to that point "; but an amend- 
ment adopted is the will of the people, because it is 
adopted by the people. A statute law being easily 
changed or repealed, those opposed to it are encouraged 
to defy it, hoping thereby to bring it into contempt 
and secure its repeal, which they are enabled to do by the 
fact that moral people, having won a victory over the 
viler elements of society on a special line, have so much 
other work to do that their attention is called from the 
field, thereby giving the outlaws, who have no other in- 
terest, the opportunity to assassinate the law, and again 
fasten on society. 

One of the strongest arguments in favor of written 
constitutions is, that they, to a very great extent, guard 
against this danger. Lieber says : " Constitutions form 
in times of political apathy, if not too great a passage, 
a bridge to pass over to better times. When civic con- 
sciousness is too weak, and patriotism too low to repel 
encroachments by their own action, they are still some- 
times sufficient to do so with the aid of a well-settled 
and clearly pronounced constitution. It gives a strong- 
feeling of right and a powerful impulse of action to 
have the written law clearly on one's side ; and though 
power, if it comes to the last,will disregard the written law 
as well as the customary, yet it must come to the last 
before it dares pass the Rubicon, and to declare revolu- 
tion." Prohibition by statute was adopted in Massa- 



5 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

chusetts, and the drunkard-makers determined to bring 
it into contempt. Year by year the law was drawn 
tighter, and its violation made more difficult. The out- 
laws were desperate, and in an hour when it was least 
expected, by fraud, trickery, and political combinations 
they sent to the State House the notorious P. L. L. 
Legislature, and the law was destroyed ; not because it 
was a failure, but because it was a success, and was ef- 
fectually destroying the business of the men who 
elected the Legislature. No person familiar with the 
history of the reform in this State, believes that the 
law would have been repealed if it had been necessary 
to refer it to the people, and to give them time to ex- 
amine the facts. The law was the victim of political 
conspiracies and combinations. 

In Kansas the prohibitory principle was placed in the 
constitution. The drunkard-makers, adopting the tactics 
of their Eastern allies, refused to obey the law in many 
places, and organized secretly to overthrow it. The 
decent people, having outlawed the business, thought 
the question settled, and took up other issues. The 
outlaws, having but one object, traded, conspired, and 
combined with every other class or clique that would 
combine with them ; and covering their real purpose 
with the cry of anti- monopoly, anti - third term and 
other issues in regard to which Prohibitionists are not 
agreed, they defeated St. John, and, as they thought, 
prohibition. Their triumph was short-lived ; for they 
found that though Prohibitionists were divided as re- 
garded other issues, they were a unit in their hatred 
of the liquor traffic, and the principle being in the con- 
stitution, to repeal it would again strip the question of 
all side issues, and draw the line with the defenders of 
the home on one side, and the defenders of the grog- 
shop on the other. They had captured the earthworks 
of statutory law, but the principle they wished to de- 
stroy was in the citadel of the constitution, defended 
by the lovers of home, country, and civilization, and no 
political compromise or bargain could destroy it. The 
constitution could only be amended by the people, and 
this would force the traffic to meet its record of crime, 
vice, and rebellion. The liquor men having everything 



WHY CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 7 

to gain, and nothing to lose, would force the issue, but 
politicians did not dare, and the State was and is safe. 
In the treatment of chronic sores by cauterizing or cut- 
ting, the pain of the operation, and the inflammation 
caused, may lead the patient to resist the operation ; yet 
these new conditions, which make the sore for a time 
appear worse than before treatment, are necessary to gen- 
erate healthy action. So the resistance and excitement 
following the outlawry of the saloon may for a time make 
things seem worse than before, but these symptoms indi- 
cate healthy action in the place of listless carelessness, 
and all that is necessary to make the work permanent, is 
to hold on until the public mind has time to settle, and 
the generation come up who know not the grog-shop. 
Joseph Cook once said, in substance : "A swamp may, 
after it has been drained, be more offensive for a time 
than before ; but that is no reason for again turning on 
the water. The thing to do is to keep it drained until 
sunlight and pure air have cleansed and purified it " 
The liquor traffic is an ulcer on the body politic ; no 
change in its treatment should be made without mature 
deliberation; and when the change is made, it should 
be made in such shape as to insure a full and fair trial 
of the new treatment. The change proposed is to 
change the power vested in the legislature from full 
power to be used as the legislature pleases, to limited 
power to be used as the people direct. The Legislature 
of Massachusetts now has plenary power to deal with 
the liquor traffic. This power they have had since the 
adoption of the constitution, and in the light of history 
I stand here to say the experience of all these years 
proves that the legislature is no place to deposit dis- 
cretionary power in dealing with the alcoholic liquor 
traffic. The power exercised by the legislature is the 
people's power delegated by the people to the legisla- 
ture; and the people have the right to recover any 
right or power which they have delegated whenever 
they think they can better their condition by so doing. 
The change will be that the people will say what the 
public policy shall be, and direct the Legislature to 
make the principle in the organic law operative by func- 
tional law. If the principle does not prove practical, 



8 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

the people can at any time change it, but it can never 
be changed until the people will it. 

So long as discretionary power is vested in the leg- 
islature, the drunkard-makers will annually use thou- 
sands of dollars if necessary to prevent right action; and 
w T hen discretionary power is taken from them, one of 
the worst sources of legislative corruption will be dried 
up, because the legislature can act in but one way, 
and it will be useless to try to bribe them. With pro- 
hibition a settled principle in the constitution, every 
legislator who swears to support the constitution must 
vote in favor of a prohibitory law, making the principle 
operative, or be a perjurer and a rebel. 

I am aware that some will object that the constitu- 
tion is no place to define what shall and what shall not 
be crimes. The eminent constitutional authority last 
quoted says : " Constitutions are the assemblage of 
those publicly acknowledged principles which are 
deemed fundamental to the government of a people. 
They refer either to the relation in which the citizen 
stands to the State at large, and consequently to the 
government, or to the proper delineation of the spheres 
of authority," The constitution lays down princi- 
ples of government, and to attack or violate those prin- 
ciples is a crime against the constitution and the gov- 
ernment. The defining and adopting the principles, 
makes its violation a crime against the government. 
To adopt a constitutional amendment prohibiting the 
liquor traffic, is to make the principle of prohibition 
fundamental, and to change the spheres of authority to 
conform to the newly adopted principle. This was 
done in regard to African slavery. The people adopted 
the principle that no slavery should exist in the States, 
and left to Congress and the Legislatures of the States 
the power to enact functional laws to carry out the will 
of the people. The principle of monogamy is deemed 
fundamental by many of our States, and will soon un- 
doubtedly be placed in the Constitution of the United 
States. That life and property should be protected is 
one of the fundamental principles of all constitutions, 
and the legislatures are left to pass functional laws to 
make the principle operative. A gentleman recently 



WHY CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. 9 

asked me, " Would you prohibit murder in the consti- 
tution? " In reply I asked, " Suppose your legislature 
should pass a law licensing murder, would it be consti- 
tutional ? " Of course he said " No "; and thereby an- 
swered himself that it was prohibited by the constitu- 
tion. The people of Iowa, finding lotteries dangerous 
to their best interests, declared it a fundamental prin- 
ciple of their government that lotteries should not ex- 
ist ; and the State has not been cursed with them since 
the principle was adopted by the people. When the 
people become convinced that a principle is right, the 
place for it is in the constitution. That there are ob- 
jections to changes in constitutions I am aware ;. but 
they are not as strongly urged as were the objections to 
written constitutions supplanting the unwritten ones. 
The constitution that cannot develop is a fraud, and a 
good basis for a despotism. To the objection that the 
amendment specifies a single institution, the answer is, 
that this institution is a special evil which is threaten- 
ing the life of the government by debauching and de- 
grading the units of the government. The question of 
its overthrow is the question of the existence or non- 
existence of republican institutions ; and that the pro- 
hibition of the existence of such an institution is 
fundamental to the existence of the government it 
jeopardizes, is self-evident. 

The verdict, for or against the traffic, will be made 
by the voters. They, desiring to act intelligently, will 
investigate the whole matter. Books, documents, and 
papers will be read, and accusers and defenders of the 
traffic will discuss the matter in every town and city of 
the State. The time necessary for its adoption pre- 
vents rash or injudicious action, and when the verdict 
is made, it will be an intelligent verdict, and will be en- 
forced, because it will be the verdict of the people ; and 
woe to the politicians or party who disregard the VOX 
POPULI. 

The plan commends itself, because : 

1. The method is in accordance with the provisions 
made by the Constitution for social and political de- 
velopment. 

2. It provides for the trial and arraignment of the 



IO THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

liquor traffic for its crimes before the people, and gives 
ample time for examination and investigation of the 
whole matter before action is taken. 

3. It makes a simple issue : the crimes of the traffic 
against society — and summons all voters to decide on 
the merits of the case. 

4. The trial will thoroughly educate the people, so 
they will be ready to defend and uphold their own 
action. 

5. The amendment adopted ensures a fair trial of the 
principle, and guards against its assassination in hours 
of political apathy. 

6. The placing of the principle in the Constitution 
is in accordance with the theory of American constitu- 
tions. 

The best form of an amendment undoubtedly is : 

Sec. 1. The manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors 
as a beverage are prohibited. 

Sec. 2. The Legislature (the General Court in Mas- 
sachusetts) shall pass laws necessary to enforce this 
prohibition. 

The use of the word " intoxicating " is not best, as it 
leaves the Courts or the Legislature to define the word 
and render prohibition a farce, as in your State, where 
the Courts hold that liquors containing less than three 
per cent, of alcohol are not intoxicating, thereby per- 
mitting the sale of lager-beer and other lesser alcoholics. 
The word " alcoholic " makes the chemist's test of the 
liquors the only thing necessary to condemn them. 
The question frequently asked : " What will be done 
about liquors to be manufactured and sold for other 
purposes ?" is best answered by an examination of the 
power granted the Legislature by the Constitution as 
it now is, and as it will be with the amendment a part 
of the Constitution. The Legislature is created by the 
Constitution, and given general power to legislate, sub- 
ject to three limitations, viz. : The Constitution of the 
United States ; Laws passed in accordance with the 
Constitution of the United States ; Limitations in the 
State Constitution. In the celebrated license cases 
which were taken, if my memory is right, from Massa- 
chusetts to the Supreme Court of the United States, 



WHY CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION. II 

that court held : " There is nothing iji the Constitution 
of the United States to prevent it (the State) from 
regulating or restraining the traffic, or prohibiting it 
altogether if it thinks proper." The power to deal 
with the traffic is thus wholly a State power, and the 
State having delegated the power to the Legislature, it 
has and will exercise that power until the people define 
and limit the power by constitutional amendment. 
When the amendment is a part of the Constitution, 
the Legislature will return all power not taken away 
by the amendment ; and as that only prohibits the 
manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage, 
the power to regulate, restrain, or prohibit the manu- 
facture and sale for other purposes will remain in the 
Legislature, and that body may say under what restric- 
tions the manufacture and sale for such purposes shall 
be carried on. 

Petitioning for the submission of an amendment, 
simply asks the Legislature to submit the whole matter 
to the people. One issue alone is raised : " Shall people 
govern themselves? " The legislator is not asked to 
vote for or against prohibition, simply to say whether 
his constituents shall decide for themselves ; and any 
legislator who refuses to submit the question, not only 
insults every voter in his district, but is a traitor to the 
principles of Republican Government, and should be 
defeated by the votes of honest men if he ever again 
seeks office. 

Thus I have briefly stated the reason why Western 
workers insist on the adoption of the principle by- the 
people before the passage of statutory law. 

You are the ones who are to say what you will do 
with the matter, and I can only urge upon you the 
necessity of doing something. The duty of the hour 
is action, and the leaders should be in the front of the 
fight. Inaction and idleness produce the same results 
as treason to the principle. The liquor interests are 
active and aggressive, and the defenders of the home 
should be equally so. I have no faith in, or sympathy 
for leaders who say: "We are discouraged, and fear 
we can accomplish nothing." Suppose your wife is on 
a sick-bed, and you call a doctor, who on coming and 



12 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

examining her would say to her, " There is very little 
chance for you to live ; I am discouraged "; would you 
not kick him out of doors ? What you would expect 
him to say, and what he would say if he had good 
sense, would be, " While there is life there is hope ; 
keep up good courage and you will pull through." 
This Government is terribly sick, and the political 
leader who will go upon the public platform and injure 
public vitality by discouraging the units of society, is 
an unsafe leader, and should* have sense enough to re- 
sign, or, failing to do so, should be requested to take a 
back seat. What we want is men and women who, for 
the love of home and country, will enter the struggle 
to win ; and after carefully studying the plan of action, 
draw the sword and throw away the scabbard, deter- 
mined only to cease the struggle when victory comes 
to bless our homes and country. 



II. 

A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 

An Address delivered before the Northwestern Convocation of Tem- 
perance Workers at Lake Bluff, Illinois, August 27, 1881. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : Some months since I re- 
ceived a letter from our mutual friend, Dr. Jutkins, in 
which he requested me to deliver an address at this 
Convocation. I replied that I should attend the Con- 
vocation, but preferred to remain silent, as a learner at 
the feet of older men. Another letter gave me to un- 
derstand that no excuse would be accepted, therefore 
an address was prepared for this occasion ; but, since 
coming upon the grounds, I have heard much which 
leads me to think it better to leave the manuscript, 
and talk to you as one worker to other workers, on the 
present aspects of the reform. 

I shall talk to you plainly, positively ; and if I bore 
you, charge it to Dr. Jutkins, for he alone is responsible 
for my appearing before you. 

In discussing the question of temperance, one fact 
more than all others I would impress on your minds at 
the commencement ; that is, that the question of the 
existence of the drink traffic and drink habit must be 
settled in this country. It cannot be laughed down, 
sneered down, jeered down, or blackguarded down, and 
there is not money enough in the blood-stained coffers 
of the liquor power of this nation to buy enough votes 
to long prevent the entire defeat of the liquor oligarchy 
at the hands of this people. 

This statement may be considered over-sanguine, 
and yet, ladies and gentlemen, it seems to me that the 
man or woman who insists that this great movement is 
caused by mere temporary excitement, must be a care- 
less student of social problems. From the day the 

(13) 



14 THE PEOPLE VS. THE TTQUOR TRAFFIC. 

temperance movement started in this country it has 
never gone backwards. 

A few months since, curiosity prompted me to write 
to State officers in different States whose Legisktures 
were in session last winter, asking them for the record 
of legislative sessions ten years ago, and also the record 
of the sessions held during the last winter, and I found 
this to be true — that, of the Legislatures of ten years 
ago, there was not one which discussed the question of 
the prohibition of the liquor traffic, while the Legisla- 
tures of the past winter, without a single exception, 
devoted a large part of their time to the discussion of 
this question. 

The St. Louis Globe Democrat (and, by the way, the 
Globe Democrat is not noted as a very strong temper- 
ance paper, the history of both its former and present 
managers proving that they sympathize largely with 
the whiskey and beer traffic) in the month of April 
last, contained an editorial nearly a column in length, 
in which it was asserted that the temperance question 
was THE religio-politico question of this age, and the 
editor went on to say that the man who thought this 
movement was an agitation by a few idle visionaries 
or old women, was dreaming on the crater of a social 
volcano. Then, after explaining and giving fully his 
reasons for such conclusions, the editor said that the 
Legislature of the State of Missouri would no more 
dare, at its next session, to refuse to submit the ques- 
tion of the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of 
alcoholic liquors to the voters of that State, than it 
would dare commit any other kind of political suicide.* 

In my State, the frontier State of Nebraska, ten 
years ago, a member of the Legislature who did not 
drink liquor was an exception ; to-day a member who 
does is an exception. To-day a man could not be 
elected in Nebraska, on any party ticket, if it was 
known he was a tippler. 

* The amendment to the State Constitution passed the Assembly 
of Missouri, but was defeated in the Senate, at the session of the 
Legislature mentioned in this speech. The liquor-dealers went to 
party politicians, and told them that if they allowed the amendment to 
pass, the liquor interest would defeat their parties. This was one 
cause of the formation of the Prohibition party in the States. 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 1$ 

The Legislature met last winter, and during the en- 
tire session I saw no member under the influence of 
liquor. I understood there was a member drunk, but 
his friends said he was suffering with brain fever, and 
kept him out of sight until he became sober. 

Ten years ago, those who called on the ladies in 
Omaha, who kept open house on New-Year's, found 
wine on nearly every table ; for the past three years 
(and I have means of knowing the truth of what I 
affirm) not a family in Omaha, nor in the city of Lin- 
coln, has placed wine before its guests on that day. 
Even our German friends have, to a great extent, ban- 
ished it from their homes in obedience to the demands 
of better educated public opinion. 

As I look over the rapid advance that has been, and 
is being made in this country, I have no doubt that 
the temperance question will come up in every spring 
election, every Town election, every City election, every 
County election, every State election, and every Na- 
tional election until it is settled ; each year it will come 
with louder knocks, and each year with more urgent 
demands. Politicians and party leaders will be taught 
that they cannot trifle with this question, that home in- 
terests and moral principles are dearer to honest men 
than party fealty or party success. This truth leads to 
another one, viz. : 

"A question is never settled until it is settled right. " 

Put the two together: it must be settled, it must be 
settled right, and we can proceed to an intelligent dis- 
cussion of the issues. 

My friends, whether you believe in the use of alco- 
holic liquor or not, the issues in this case must be in- 
vestigated, and you must make up your minds to meet 
them and settle them like thinking men and women. 
Compromise, upon a question of principle, is always a 
victory for the devil. If you know you are right ; if 
your conscience, your reason tells you so, and then for 
the sake of temporary peace, you make concessions to 
the side that you know to be wrong, you will find 
sooner or later that you have involved yourself in 
greater trouble, and probably in a worse fight, one that 
will not be settled until you retrace the wrong steps 



1 6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

which you have taken. Tell one lie and you will find 
it necessary to tell others to prevent detection of the 
first. The history of the world is simply recorded 
demonstrations of these truths. 

After the American Colonies were settled, the Par- 
liament of Great Britain insisted that the right was 
vested in the King, by and with the consent of Parlia- 
ment, to levy taxes upon the people of the Colonies : 
the Colonists at once demurred, and insisted that if 
Parliament, or the King, by and with consent of Par- 
liament, had the right to levy taxes, then the Colonies 
must be represented in the Parliament which gave the 
consent. The Parliament of Great Britain levied heavy 
taxes on the Colonies. The result was inevitable. 
Parliament was seeking to establish what the majority 
of the Colonies believed to be a false principle of gov- 
ernment. To resist such tyrannical action, Clubs of 
Liberty were organized throughout the Colonies. The 
English Premier saw the storm his action had raised, 
and wished, if possible, to allay it ; the result was the 
repeal of all the heavy taxes and the concession that 
the taxes levied should only be upon commerce, and 
should be applied to the use of the Colony where they 
were levied. By this act, Parliament conceded every- 
thing but the principle — a small tax levied by Parlia- 
ment to be applied to the use of the Colony where the 
tax was laid. But the agitation did not cease. 

A leading American was asked in Boston, "Would 
you plunge the Colonies in war for a few pence on a 
pound of tea ? " The answer was, " It is not the amount 
of the tax, but the accursed principle upon which Par- 
liament bases the claim of right to levy ANY tax, that we 
are fighting/' It was fought out on that line, and King 
George lost one of the brightest jewels in his crown. 

This principle has also been demonstrated at a much 
later date. The representatives of the United States, 
assembled for the first time as a Congress of an inde- 
pendent nation, declared : " We hold these truths to be 
self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness." Jefferson, in his original draft of 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 1/ 

the Declaration of Independence, emphasized the words 
" All men," by this charge : " He (the King) has waged 
cruel war against human nature itself, violating its 
most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the persons 
of a distant people who never offended him, captivating 
and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, 
or to incur miserable death in their transportation 
hither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of 
infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of 
Great Britain. Determined to open a market where 
men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his 
negative, for suppressing every legislative attempt to 
prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And 
that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of 
distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people 
to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty 
of which he has deprived them, by murdering the 
people upon whom he also obtruded them, thus paying 
off former crimes committed against the liberties of 
one people with the crimes which he urges them to 
commit against the lives of another." 

Slavery existed in the Colonies. The representatives, 
fearing the people, would not ratify the Declaration, 
the clause which Jefferson had written was stricken 
out, and the general term, " All men," was left unde- 
fined and unernphasized. The long years of mental 
and physical struggle for freedom during the Revolu- 
tionary War extended the mental horizon of American 
statesmen, and they began to perceive that " All men " 
might possibly include Africans, and thus the question 
which statesmen thought they had settled by the 
compromise made at the time of adopting the Declara- 
tion, forced itself into the convention which met to 
amend the defective Articles of Confederation. There 
the wrong of slavery was not denied, but the feelings 
of the delegates were expressed by one who said : " We 
have a wolf by the ears, and we dare not hold on or 
let go ! " To do right seemed to endanger a national 
form of government, and another compromise followed. 
The word slavery was so obnoxious to men emerging 
from a long and bloody war for their own liberties 
that they would not allow it to appear in the Constitu- 

2 



1 8 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

tion of the United States. They allowed it to exist 
in the States as a thing to be passed by rather than 
noticed, aitd, although slavery has gone from the land 
it has never been necessary to change a word in the 
original Constitution. "Regulate and restrain " was 
the policy adopted. 

Madison, speaking of this compromise half apologeti- 
cally, said : " It were doubtless to be wished that the 
power of prohibiting the importation of slaves had not 
been postponed until the year 1 808, or rather, that it 
had been suffered to have immediate operation, but it 
is not difficult to account, either for this restriction on 
the general Government, or for the manner in which 
the whole clause is exoressed. It ought to be consid- 
ered a great point gained in favor of humanity that a 
period of twenty years may terminate forever within 
these States a traffic which has so long and so loudly 
upbraided the barbarism of modern policy ; that within 
that period it will receive a considerable discourage- 
ment from the general Government, and may be totally 
abolished by the concurrence of the few States which 
continue the unnatural traffic." 

The delegates labored under the delusion that their 
action had placed the question where it would settle 
itself ; but soon prostituted principle woke from the 
slumber of exhaustion to hear the ringing words of> 
John Randolph, like a fire-bell in the night : 

u I know there are gentlemen, not only from the 
Northern but from the Southern States, who think 
this unhappy question — for such it is — of Negro 
slavery, which the Constitution has vainly tried to 
blink by not using the term, should never be brought 
to public notice, more especially that of Congress, and 
most especially here. Sir, with every due respect to 
the gentlemen who think so, I differ from them toto 
ccelo. Sir, it is a thing which cannot be hid ; it is not 
a dry-rot which you can cover with a carpet until the 
house tumbles about your ears ; you might as well try 
to hide a volcano in full operation ; it cannot be hid ; 
it is a cancer in your face, and must be treated secun- 
dum artem ; it must not be tampered with by quacks 
who never saw the disease or the patient." 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 1 9 

Brave, prophetic words. The volcano of an awaken- 
ing public conscience could not, indeed, be suppressed. 
Compromise followed compromise, the old ulcer on the 
body politic grew deeper, the moral pulse of the nation 
grew feebler, but God was not asleep ; the cry of the 
bondman had reached His ear, the stench of human 
blood had offended His nostril. To-day, along the 
mountains, plains, and valleys of the sunny Southland, 
the cold sod is heavy over the forms of the grandest, 
bravest men of the nation, men who wore the blue, 
men who wore the gray, whose blood was poured out 
as a libation upon the nation's altar to atone for an 
accursed compromise, which might, at one time, have 
been stricken out with a pen. In the reddest of 
American blood it is written : " A QUESTION IS NEVER 
SETTLED UNTIL IT IS SETTLED RIGHT." 

With this truth, taught by experience, as a starting- 
point we are ready to continue the investigation. This 
is not a personal matter between the drunkard-maker 
and the temperance advocate. Whether the drunk- 
ard-maker is a scoundrel or a gentleman weighs not 
an atom in settling the merits of the case. For the 
purposes of this investigation, it matters not whether 
he is a devil or an angel of light. If he is an angel he 
cannot make a devilish principle a good one ; if he is a 
devil he cannot make a God-given principle a bad one. 

The question to be considered is, the cause of, and 
remedy for, the evils of intemperance. If the whole 
brood of drunkard-makers could be drowned in Lake 
Michigan to-morrow, another brood would spring up in 
three months, equally as bad as the one destroyed, un- 
less we could destroy the accursed system that produced 
them ; sear the neck of the license hydra, with public 
opinion in the hands of prohibition Iolaus. 

Some cry, " Attack the liquor-seller ! ,: When asked 
why, they answer, " He is a mean man." What if he 
is ? The meaner and viler the drunkard-maker, the 
better he represents his mean, vile business ; and I 
prefer a man should be a good representative of his 
trade. The American people must enter upon the 
investigation of this question, determined to examine 
fully all of its phases, to weigh carefully the arguments 



20 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

advanced by both sides, investigate the alleged facts 
produced by advocates who represent the home and the 
grog-shop, and then, on the weight of evidence pre- 
sented, base their verdict. Anything less would not 
be reasonable, anything else would not be honest. In 
trying such issues, blackguardism, sneers, and reckless 
statements are out of place. I have been often im- 
pressed, when listening to those who represent the 
drunkard-makers, that a blackguard is as much out of 
place in the field of honest, manly discussion as a mon- 
key would be in the tabernacle of the Lord. A man 
engaged in either intellectual or physical combat should 
never throw mud when he has rocks at hand, and when 
individuals stoop to use the mud of epithets in a dis- 
cussion of this kind, it is prima facie evidence that they 
have nothing else to use. The copious use of epithets 
like " Fanatic/' " Zealot," " Fool," and " Visionary," is 
not argument, but rather an indication of a cerebral 
vacuum in the head of the talker. When you see a 
man standing on the street corner, sticking his thumb 
in his vest-pocket and calling temperance people vile 
names, just remember it does not require a high order 
of brains to abuse people. A parrot can blackguard. 
" If you have no case, abuse the opposing attorney," is 
the motto of pettifoggers the world over. 

Temperance advocates have no use for the style of 
argument used by tfre drunkard-makers and their apol- 
ogists. Temperance men believe they are advocating 
correct principles, and that the facts and arguments 
upon which they base their claims are so nearly self- 
evident, that a presentation in a fair, candid way will 
convince thinking, intelligent people that prohibition is 
the only remedy for the drink curse. They believe the 
people are intelligent, and fully capable of passing 
judgment upon any question of governmental policy ; 
that the people are the court of last resort, and that all 
questions must be determined by them. In accordance 
with this idea they go to the people as to a jury, pre- 
senting an indictment against the drink traffic, and ask 
that the traffic be tried, and a verdict rendered in ac- 
cordance with the evidence. The object and purpose 
of the work they have never concealed. From the day 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 21 

the temperance reform started in this country, the pro- 
hibitionists have declared from platform and pulpit 
their purpose, and that purpose is to bury the liquor 
traffic in the way the old Welsh woman said she would 
bury the devil : " With face down, so that should he 
ever come to life, the more he digs the deeper he will 
get." 

•Ladies and gentlemen, such is the purpose of the 
temperance men of this country — a calm, deliberate, 
dispassionate purpose — formed after a full investigation 
of all the facts in the case. You say at once, " This 
involves social changes, legal changes, changes in the 
very structure of this government." I answer, " Yes." 
You ask, " On what charges do you base the demands 
for this change ? " Let me write the answer ; dip my 
finger in the blood of some man killed by beer or whis- 
key, and write it on this wall : 

1st. From the day the liquor traffic was allowed to 
come into this country from the despotisms of Europe, 
it has existed as a bitter, blighting, damning curse on 
everything decent, virtuous, and pure. Its history 
proves it the enemy of law, order, morality, Christian- 
ity, and civilization. 

2d. The American dram-shop is the cause of more 
than six-sevenths of the pauperism and four-fifths of 
the crime in the nation. It is the hot-bed where out- 
laws germinate ; the cradle where vice is rocked. 

3d. Liquor-drinking makes the slums of great cities, 
and is responsible for the horrible condition of mankind 
in the slums. 

The temperance leaders stand before the people 
of the world, present the indictment, and say to the 
liquor interest : " Come into the court of the people 
and plead." It does not matter whether the temper- 
ance advocate is a scoundrel or a gentleman, Mr. Beer- 
seller. The only question the liquor interest of this 
country must meet is the question raised by this indict- 
ment. If the charges are false, the temperance men are 
liars, slanderers, maligners, and the people should put 
them on a rail, ride them out of the towns, and dump 
them into the lake. If the charges are true, no man 
can justify the license of a damnable traffic guilty of 



22 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

such social crime. It is simply a question of fact. Do 
the temperance men lie, or do they tell the truth ? They 
have always proclaimed and pressed the charges. They 
have stood upon the public platforms and said to the 
keepers of the dram-shops : " Dare you come before 
the people and deny these charges ? " How do the 
liquor-dealers meet the charges ? 

Supposing a young man living in Lake Bluff should 
steal a horse, and start to go to Wisconsin. He is ar- 
rested this side of the Wisconsin line, brought back and 
put in the county jail. The grand jury meet and find 
an indictment charging him with felony. The young 
man is brought into court to make his plea. The peo- 
ple prefer he should be acquitted. I believe it is a fact 
that the American people always sympathize with the 
criminal ; in other words, they prefer that the man 
should be innocent, rather than that he should be 
guilty. You see a man led into a court-room, charged 
with the crime of murder, and the people hope that the 
charge is not true. The boy is brought in, the clerk 
reads the indictment, and asks the simple question : 
" Are you guilty or not guilty ? " It is a question of 
fact between him and the people ; he is expected to do 
one of two things, either plead guilty and accept the 
punishment of outraged law, or not guilty, thereby 
challenging the allegations of the people, and forcing 
their attorney to produce the proof. 

The indictment is read, he is asked for his plea, 
" Guilty or not guilty ?" but instead of making it he 
draws back, begins to whimper, and says : " If I had 
not stolen the horse some other man would ! " 

The court would say : " That has nothing to do with 
the question ; it is a question involving your character, 
reputation, and liberty, a simple question of fact; are 
you guilty or not guilty ?" 

The prisoner continues to whimper, and says: " Peo- 
ple have always stolen horses, and they will always steal 
horses, and it is not fair to pitch into me." 

No court would accept such a plea. I can imagine 
the indignation of the court when for the third time he 
is asked : " Are you guilty or not guilty ? " 

The prisoner, drawing back among a crowd of roughs, 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 2$ 

answers, " And if I am guilty, what are you going to do 
about it? All prohibitory laws for the suppression of 
stealing have failed. Persons steal in every section of 
this land. You cannot stop it. Prohibition is a failure. 
Let me tell you what I will do. If you will let me go 
and continue stealing, I will give you half the money I 
received for the horse." 

If the judge, in face of such a threat, should accept 
the bribe and release the prisoner, how quickly the 
people would move to impeach such a judge and de- 
pose him for corrupt practices. 

The temperance leaders draw the indictment on 
which the. liquor business is brought into the court of 
the people. They insist and demand that the traffic 
shall plead ; not sneak into its dens of infamy, not 
crouch with the bludgeon in the hands of drunken as- 
sassins, not bulldoze and intimidate law-abiding citi- 
zens ; but, like any other criminal, come and plead to 
the indictment before the people. Bring the traffic, in 
the person of its representatives, into court. Read the 
indictment. Mr. Liquor-dealer, what is your plea ? 
The liquor-dealer commences to whimper, and says : 
" These temperance people are all hypocrites." 
" Come, now, brace up and be a man : true or false ? " 
He says, " If I don't sell, some other fellows will." 
"What has the question of another individual's guilt 
to do with the question of the guilt of the whole traffic? 
The question is simply, Is your business guilty ? That 
is all. If it is not guilty, the business will go on all 
the stronger; if it is guilty, it must die. Guilty or not 
guilty?" 

"The people have always drank; they always will 
drink, and it is not fair to pitch into me." 

" Guilty or not guilty, Mr. Liquor-seller ? That is all." 
He draws back, and says : 

"Well, if I am, what are you going to do about it? 
If you say I shall not sell, I will sell in defiance of law. 
You never have stopped the sale, and never can stop 
it. When you say I shall not do it, I will hoist the 
flag of rebellion on the head of a beer-keg, and defy 
you to stop me. Let me tell you what I will do : If 
you will permit me to sell, despite the social results of 



24 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

my traffic, I will give you $500 out of the money I get 
out of the business." 

And the people of Chicago and the people of this 
country reach out their hands and say : 

" Pass over a part of the crime-tainted proceeds ; di- 
vide the blood-money with us, and we will license you 
and swear you are respectable." 

See again how the liquor-dealers meet the charges. 
They dare not meet them like honest men. 

In Kansas I had the pleasure of visiting the State 
to help in the struggle for prohibition. I went down 
into the Democratic part of the State. Strange as it 
may seem to some of you, my political opinions lead 
me to support that party. I did not stand on a plat- 
form during the campaign that I did not ask the liquor 
men to come to the platform and discuss the question. 
I said : " If temperance men are wrong, get your ablest 
men and bring them here upon the platform, prove us 
in the wrong, and you have beaten us." Did they 
come ? Never. 

I was one day returning to my home in Lincoln, from 
Atchison, Kansas, when a gentleman from Chicago, by 
the name of Hass, came and sat down beside me. After 
shaking hands, he said : 

"Veil, Finch, vat are you down here for?" 

I said I had been doing a little work. 

"Vat kind of vork?" 

" Persuading the people to pass the prohibition 
amendment." 

" You dink you bass him ? " 

"No; I do not think so." 

"Vat you mean?" 

"I know it will be passed." 

He looked at me, and said : " Veil, Finch, you vas a 
pretty smart fellow about some dings, but you vas a 
dam vool about dot." 

After he had finished laughing at his own wit, I said 
to him : " Well, now, Mr. Hass, you think I am a friend 
of yours, and I think I am in some respects; let me 
advise you as a friend, if you have any money now, 
put it where you can keep it ; for in less than twenty 
years the temperance men will have abolished the liq- 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 2$ 

uor traffic in every State north of Mason and Dixon's 
line." 

He laughed and said: "You can't bass dot ament- 
ment." 

I said: "Why?" 

He answered: "We haf cot $150,000 to put is dis 
fight."- 

I said : " Bless the Lord." 

" Vat you mean ? " he asked. 

" I am glad you are going to make a square fight." 

" Vat you mean by a square fight ? " 

" You say we are fools, and what we are talking about 
is nonsense. Do you think the people of this State 
are fools?" 

He said, " No." 

"You would be perfectly willing to let them try a 
case in which you had money involved?" 

"Yaw." 

"If we are wrong, why do you not hire the ablest 
lawyers and ministers, the best and purest women in 
this land, put them on the platform with us, and let 
them convince the people that v/e are wrong, let them 
show the people we are fools ? Do this, and you have 
dug a grave for this temperance nonsense so deep that 
a grave robber would not waste time in hunting for it. 
Send a man to meet me to-morrow night, and send a 
good one." 

" No," he said, in language I will not imitate ; " we 
know a better way than that. The people up in the 
frontier counties are starving. We have money enough 
to divide up and put $10,000 in every frontier county 
in Kansas ! Do you think you can talk against such 
arguments?" 

He said that — the old criminal ! 

His only defence upon the trial of the case before the 
jury of the people was his power to corrupt men and 
buy them when they were starving. He did not dare 
to meet the charges. He did not dare to make an hon- 
est fight ; but simply boasted of his power to corrupt 
and debase men. 

Last spring a convention of liquor-dealers was called 
to meet at Lincoln, Neb. They met, and a committee 



26 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

was appointed to formulate a plan of organization. 
During the time the committee was deliberating, a 
member moved that the organization be called the Liq- 
uor-Dealers' Alliance of Nebraska. One liquor-dealer 
said, " Such a name would kill it." 

The matter was referred to the committee, and the 
committee reported in favor of calling it the ■ " Mer- 
chants' and Traders' Union," — ashamed to own its true 
character, or, rather, wishing at least that the child 
should come out with decent clothes, although its 
name would make it illegitimate. So at the present 
time in Nebraska we have no liquor association — we 
have the Merchants' and Traders' Union. Printers or- 
ganize printers' unions ; farmers organize farmers' clubs. 
All decent trades organize under their own names ; but 
the drunkard-makers organize " Merchants' and Traders' 
Unions." Think of a business so vile that men in it are 
ashamed of its name ! 

At the opening of the struggle for a prohibitory law 
last year, S. H. King, D.S., of Lincoln, formulated an 
indictment, and published a circular addressed to the 
President of this " Merchants' and Traders' Union," in 
which he said : 

" The temperance leaders wish to try this case fairly be- 
fore the people. They will hire the halls, pay every ex- 
pense connected with the meetings, except the expense 
of your speakers, if you will send men with our speak- 
ers to try this question before the people of the State." 

The temperance men waited three weeks, and the 
drunkard-makers made no reply. Then Mr. King of- 
fered to pay the expenses of their speakers (all but 
their whiskey bills) if they would discuss the question. 

I met the leader of the dealers some weeks after this, 
and shook hands with him. I said to him : " When are 
you going to accept that offer of Dr. King's ; w T hen are 
you going to send a man to discuss the charges against 
the liquor trade before the people?" 

Turning around to me, with a bitter oath, he said : 
" You don't think I'm a fool, do you? I would rather 
give $20,000 to prevent you from submitting the ques- 
tion to the people, than to try to beat you if you suc- 
ceed in having it submitted." 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 2/ 

They came to Lincoln, put their money into the 
banks, and they found men in the Legislature who 
were dishonest enough to accept it. Drunkard-making 
had twenty-eight votes; prohibition forty-nine. Pro- 
hibition needed fifty-one, as it takes three-fifths of all 
members elected to the Legislature to submit a consti- 
tutional amendment to the voters. In this way, ladies 
and gentlemen, this criminal traffic meets the charges of 
crime ; by corrupting men, buying men, and destroying 
the very foundation of the American system of gov- 
ernment—the purity of the individual voter. 

Did you ever hear of a liquor-dealer taking the 
platform to defend his business on its merits as a social 
institution ? 

Two years ago the editor of a leading paper, a 
genial, courteous gentleman, came to Lincoln in favor 
of high license. His talk occupied two hours, and I 
talked half an hour in reply. In opening his argu- 
ment he said : 

" Ladies and gentlemen of Nebraska, I do not come 
to deny that intemperance is the curse of the State, 
that it is sapping and undermining our social, civil, and 
political institutions. All this is admitted." That was 
his starting-point, and he went on to say that the liquor 
business was bad, all bad, not a good thing in it, but 
it could not be prohibited ; people would sell, and it 
was better to restrain, and get a little money out of it. 

The logic of such a plea is : the Government has not 
stopped men from stealing by laws prohibiting stealing, 
so it had better license them to steal if they will divide 
the proceeds with the city. 

A few weeks later, Judge Isaac Haskell, in the Acad- 
emy of Music, in Omaha, advocated license, and I 
spoke for prohibition. He said at the beginning, " I 
despise drunkards ; I hate drunkenness ! It is the curse 
of this country." He went on to say : " People always 
have drank ; they always will drink. You cannot pro- 
hibit the sale, you had better license and regulate it 
and get some money out of it to help pay taxes." By 
the same logic, because the Church cannot exterminate 
the devil, it had better go into partnership with him, 
and divide up the souls of men. 



23 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

In Wisconsin a gentleman by the name of Wooster, 
an attorney, was once discussing the license question. 
He said, " I believe, just as honestly as my friend 
Finch does, that alcoholic liquor is a damnable bever- 
age. " Then he went on to say that people always had 
drank and always would drink. During my reply I 
said, if alcoholic liquor is a damnable beverage, then it 
follows that the traffic in a damnable beverage must 
be a damnable traffic, and a man who will advocate a 
damnable traffic in a damnable beverage must be — 
and there I left the audience to infer what the conclu- 
sion must be, and the man was mad. 

Attack the Methodist Church and a Methodist 
defends ; attack the Catholic Church and your opponent 
is proud of being a Catholic; but attack the liquor 
business and the liquor apologist is: "Just as good a 
temperance man as you are." Whenever you force the 
advocates of the dram-shop in this country to first 
principles, the}/ always disavow their connection with 
the fruits of the traffic, and preface their statement with, 
" I am a temperance man." Why do they not say, " I 
am a beer man ; I would rather have a boy who would 
get drunk ; I. would rather have a wife who would get 
drunk"? One is led to ask, if there is a redeeming 
feature about their accursed trade, why they do not 
stand by their business instead of sneaking and crawl- 
ing like cowards. I would go half around the earth once, 
and pay my own fare, to hear a man, with cheek hard 
enough, and impudence great enough, to stand on the 
public platform, and claim that the grog-shop, judged 
by its record as a social institution, was fit to live. 

Comparisons bring out colors. Compare the traffic 
with other trades. The liquor men will admit that a 
minister is as good as a liquor-seller as long as he 
behaves himself as well. Then write with the propo- 
sitions already stated, the principle of political economy 
taught us when we were boys at school : that there 
are but three ways of getting money or wealth — make 
it, have it donated to you, or steal it. Some would say 
find it ; the chances are too slim, and you cannot base 
a principle of political economy on chance. Change 
the form, and it is in this shape : " Without making it, 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 2g 

inheriting it, or having it donated to him, any man 
who obtains wealth is a thief." In honest business 
every man is bound to trade in an honest manner. 
Although it may be unpopular doctrine in this coun- 
try, I say I have no sympathy for the accursed practice 
called sharpness, which is held to justify lying to a 
man in a trade and then laughing about the trick ; it 
is no better than stealing. I would respect a man who 
would steal twenty-five cents from my pocket-book as 
much as I would a man who would lie to me in a trade 
and get it in that way. When I have taken a man's 
word it hurts my faith in humanity to find my trust 
betrayed, and I lose both faith and money, while the 
thief simply takes money or value. 

You hire a minister, you pay him money (that is, I 
suppose you do). The man is hired just as any other 
man is hired, and you expect he will give you value 
received for the money that he gets. I hire a minis- 
ter, or help to hire one, on the same basis that I hire 
a man to dig a ditch. I expect he will do good work ; 
if he does not, I will help to turn him off, and get a 
new one as soon as I can. But when he is hired, I am 
us much bound, in honor, to pay him what I agree to 
pay him as I am bound to pay a man who undertakes 
any other labor for me. You hire a minister and pay 
him, if you are honest ; a man who will cheat a minister 
is as big a knave as a man who will cheat any laborer. 
I suppose you always pay your ministers. People do 
not in my State — unless it is in promises to pay. One 
curse of moral reform in the States is the large number 
of persons who are trying to dead-beat their way into 
Heaven on the coat-tails of a starved ministry. 

I call a clergyman up here and say to him, "You 
receive money ; now, sir, tell the people what you give 
them for the money they pay you ; show them what 
you give them. Mr. Clergyman, they do not pay you 
alone for preaching, although it is pleasant and instruct- 
ive to listen, but a preacher is a teacher, and must be 
judged by results to be shown by the future as well as 
the present. They do not pay you to run revivals, 
though it is a good thing to take the minds of the 
people away from this world to the future— and let 



30 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

me digress here to say, it has been my experience as a 
lawyer, that you can collect debts after a revival that 
were not worth ten cents on the dollar before. The 
religion of Jesus Christ does make men honest. If a 
professing Christian is not honest, it is good evidence 
that he is a religious fraud. A town could afford, for 
the sake of business alone, to run a revival once a year. 
But, Mr. Clergyman, you are not living for to-day, for 
to-morrow, for next week, for next year ; will you 
come up here now, and defend your work? We do 
not want you to defend # it by young converts or by 
middle-aged Christians ; we want you to come here by 
the death-bed of the Christian and tell us, sir, if you 
will defend your faith there." He w r ould come and say, 
" That is the test I want. I do not want you to try 
Christianity by the sunshine Christians, who work for 
the Lord on Sunday and the devil the rest of the 
week, nor by the people who are in the Church as an 
insurance society, to keep them from burning after 
they get on the other side ; but I desire that Chris- 
tianity shall be judged by the record and life-work of 
people who have loved God and kept His command- 
ments. By that test I am willing the religion of the 
Master shall be judged." My friends, it matters not 
how far you may have drifted upon the sea of doubt 
and unbelief, you must accept such a test, and say to 
the man of God: " Any person whose teachings make 
men more honest, develop intelligence and morality, 
and smooth the pathway to the grave, thereby light- 
ing up the dark future, is entitled to a world's grati- 
tude. You earn your money, stand aside." 

We want to examine another profession, and we call 
the school teacher. " What do you give the people for 
what you receive ? They pay you and they expect that 
you will return value received. What do you give 
back ? " The teacher would come, and calling up the 
merchant, doctor, lawyer, and tradesman he had taught, 
would say, " This is the result of my work." " Uni- 
versal education is the foundation of liberty." Then 
reaching his hand to the teacher of morals — the min- 
ister — he would say : " Educated conscientiousness and 
educated intellect — a dual unit — is the only safe foun- 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 3 1 

dation for a government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people/* Let me say to you, if I may say 
it in a temperance talk, that I believe, in this country, 
any system of education that does not develop the 
morals as well as the intellect, is a fraud and a failure. 
Come with me to the frontier, and I will show you 
men who are graduates of Eastern colleges, who 
have fled there to avoid the effect of crimes committed 
in their former homes. They are vile and devilish. 
To make a symmetrical man or woman, the moral nature 
must be developed, side by side with the intellectual, 
or the student becomes an intellectual monstrosity. 

Therefore we say to the teacher, " Take your place 
with the world's workers, who fairly earn the compen- 
sation they receive. ,, 

We want to test another trade, and we shout out to 
the blacksmith. We say : " You get money, come up 
here and bring specimens of your work." He would 
come, and, holding up a horse-shoe, would say: "Here 
is my work. Every time I put a shoe on a horse the 
owner is better off, and I am better off, if he pays 
me." Placing him beside the minister and teacher, we 
call a milliner to represent the ladies, and say to her : 
" You get money, and it is an important question to us 
married men what you give back." She comes up, 
and holding a finished hat or bonnet, says: "I made 
that — is it not well done?" Although men make 
sport of hats and bonnets, yet we are free to confess 
that our wives look prettier when they have them on, 
and when we take the thing and look &l it, almost 
trembling, fearful lest we crush it, we realize that we 
can earn the money to buy it in a day, and with our 
clumsy fingers we could never make it ; so we make 
up our minds it is a necessity, and give the milliner a 
place with the others who render fair return for the 
money they receive. 

Now having tested these, we want to test the keeper 
of the dram-shop in this State by the same standards. 
" Come up, sir. You said a minute ago the minister 
was as good as the liquor-seller, if he behaved himself 
as well. If the minister is your equal you must get 
into the same scales of political economy in which we 



32 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

have weighed him. Do not plead the baby act, but 
come. You dare not come? Do you hesitate? You 
toil not, neither do you spin, yet you make more 
money with less brains and capital than any other 
tradesman. Few workmen can wear such clothes as 
you do. What are you giving in return for what you 
get? Come up here, sir; bring a finished specimen of 
your work ; hold it up here for the crowd to see, and 
show us its fine points!" Would he come? You could 
not drive him up here if you put a shotgun behind him. 
What should he bring? What does the dram-shop 
manufacture? What has it always manufactured? It 
has manufactured drunkards, first, last, and all the time. 
A dram-shop keeper is as distinctly a drunkard-maker 
as a man that makes shoes is a shoemaker. That is 
all he ever did make, that is all he ever will make. 

Show us a first-class sample of dram-shop work. 
Do not show us a specimen of raw material from which 
you make your finished product. We know where 
and how it was raised. We know how the father 
gave the best years of his life and the mother her 
girlhood bloom to develop the bright, brave boy. We 
know how he entered your trap with good muscle, 
nerve, brain, character. Do not bring such a specimen, 
bring a finished job and show us how you have im- 
proved the raw material. Could you induce a liquor- 
dealer to come up here and hold up the specimen? 
What is the drunkard-maker's defence? You say to 
him, "You make drunkards." His very first defence 
is, "I do not sell liquor to drunkards; I do not have 
them hanging around me." If it is a good thing to 
make a drunkard, a drunkard must be a good thing 
after he is made. Suppose, ladies and gentlemen, the 
minister should come here and give you as a reason 
why his church should be endorsed, that he did not 
have any old Christians hanging around his prayer- 
meetings. Suppose he should say to the young men : 
" Follow Christ ; attend church, Sunday-school, and 
prayer-meeting regularly for thirty years. By that time 
it will have made you such a wretch that we will kick 
you out when you come to church." Would that be a 
good advertisement for the Christian religion ? 



A STATEMENT OF THE CASE. 33 

I recently saw by the papers that at a camp-meeting 
at Des Plaines, Illinois, they called together on the plat- 
form all the old men and women who had been in 
Christian work fifty years, and there w T as a crowd gath- 
ered in the auditorium to hear their testimony ; the 
papers stated that as these old veterans in the service 
of Christ gave in their testimony of the wonderful love 
and goodness of God, the feeling pervading the meeting 
was wonderful. vVhy do not the drunkard-makers come 
here and call up a number of their veterans — a number 
of men they have worked on for ten, fifteen, and twenty 
years, with red noses, bleared eyes, ragged clothes, worn- 
out shoes ? Bring them up here and exhibit them to 
prove the beautiful effects of liquor-drinking on the 
individual, and through the individual upon the State 
of which the individual is a unit. Let the liquor-seller 
now act as interlocutor — open the Bible and read : " No 
drunkard shall inherit the kinrgdom of heaven/' and 
then call on them to testify. Upon their evidence we 
would be willing to rest the whole case against the vile 
traffic. Why will not the drunkard-makers do it ? Is 
their business so mean, so low, so devilish, that when 
they have finished their work with a man who has stood 
by them through thick and thin, giving them his money, 
character — everything, they kick him out and say : "He 
is a dirty, drunken dead-beat." " We do not want any 
old drunkards around us ! " The representatives of the 
business are ashamed of its results. Such is the evi- 
dence in the case. 

Go down the street ; a new w^agon is standing by the 
curb ; you stop to admire it, and at last say : " I wonder 
who made it." " I did, sir," answers the wagon-maker. 
" Will you please examine the wagon closely, because 
we challenge examination of our work." Look at the 
man. . He is dressed in poor clothes, but see how proud 
he is as he contemplates his finished work. Last year 
while visiting a country fair, together with a friend, I 
was standing by one of the stock-pens, looking at a calf. 
" I wonder who raised the calf ? " said my friend. " I 
did," answered a farmer standing near by. As the 
farmer spoke, he straightened up, as much as to say, 
" I am proud of my work." As you pass along the 



34 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

streets of our cities you frequently see other work 
nearly finished, sitting on the curb or wallowing in the 
gutter. Stop and ask : " Whose job is this ? " Will 
the drunkard-maker run out of his factory and say : " I 
did that work ! Look at that nose, face, and mouth. 
That man once had a face like yours, but I fixed him." 
The reason why the drunkard-makers will not defend 
their work is, it is indefensible. Can you separate a 
workman from his chips ? If the liquor business is re- 
spectable, its products must be respectable. The liquor 
business has its own record and social crimes to meet 
and defend ; this much, no more. These crimes have 
not been committed in moments of sudden anger and 
passion, but coolly, deliberately, and wilfully. The cost 
has been counted, the profits estimated, and the sanc- 
tion of Government bought by men who know right 
from wrong, men who are responsible for their acts. 
They must now receive justice. 

The advocates of the home will continue to press the 
charges against the traffic, and labor to perfect their 
plan of prosecution against such a wilful, malicious, 
cold-blooded, social criminal. The object of the pros- 
ecution is to protect the home, the wife, the baby 
against a traffic conducted by men who spare neither 
age, sex, nor condition. If the people find a verdict of 
guilty it will save drunkards and prevent drunkenness. 

The civilized people believe in reaching down into 
the depths of debauchery and getting hold of the vic- 
tims of this traffic ; reaching with tears and prayers, 
and lifting and holding them up, but after they have 
helped them out, they believe in closing the factory it- 
self so other men will not be tempted to ruin. Save 
the drunkard and prevent drunkenness. 

Such, ladies and gentlemen, is the indictment against 
the liquor traffic, and the methods of the prosecution 
and defence. Firm in the belief in the righteousness 
of their cause, the home advocates will move for a ver- 
dict of guilty, and demand that sentence be passed on 
this vile hoary-headed criminal ; and then, when the 
people have settled the question, and settled it right, 
we may say in reality, as we now say in theory, " Vox 
populi, vox Dei." 



III. 

WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 

An Address delivered in the Opera-House at Waukesha, Wiscon- 
sin, Thursday, Oct. 12, '1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : Early in September, while 
visiting in the city of Madison, I received an invitation 
from temperance friends to return to the State, and talk 
on the subject of the prohibition of the alcoholic liquor 
traffic. I was willing to accept this invitation for two 
reasons. 

1st. I was in your State four years ago, and when I 
returned to my Western home I carried -with me the 
memory of many pleasant places, which I had a sincere 
desire to revisit that I might meet old friends. 

2d. I wished to know if the people of this State 
were keeping pace with other States in the great work 
of outlawing the drunkard-makers of this country. Al- 
though the newspapers almost always tell the truth, yet 
sometimes you cannot depend upon their telling all 
the facts about the prohibition movement, and I 
thought if I wanted to know the whole truth, the best 
way would be for me to come here and see and talk 
with you. 

I am not here to deliver any lecture or set address. 
I was not asked to do that. I was invited to come here 
and talk to you, and that is what I intend to do — talk 
to you upon a question that involves your interests as 
much as it does mine, that should interest you as much 
as it does me — a question that you must desire to see 
settled as earnestly as I do — although you and I may 
differ in regard to the best methods of settlement. 

I always wish, when I am discussing this question be- 
fore an audience, that I could call up every man and 
woman and swear them as a jury, on the Bible, to ren- 
der an honest verdict on all the facts in the case. 

(35) 



36 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

A great business — a great traffic — is on trial for its 
life before a jury of American citizens. The temper- 
ance men of this country have indicted the traffic as 
a social criminal. The counts of the indictment are as 
positive and plain as those that are preferred against 
any criminal, and the people are the jury who are to 
determine the truth or falsity of the charges as they 
are stated. Therefore, I always feel that what I may 
say will do no good unless it shall lead the people to 
act — perhaps first to think, and then to act. 

When I leave the platform to-night I shall be no bet- 
ter temperance man than I am now. If I accomplish 
any good it will be because I appeal to your reason 
and your judgment ; thus leading you to act up to the 
full measure of your convictions. If I could, by any 
trick of sophistry, or any power of personal magnetism, 
lead every man and woman in this house to shout for 
prohibition, I would not do it unless your judgment, 
reason, and intelligence told you to do so. The battle 
is to death ; no compromise will be accepted. Chris- 
tian civilization must abolish the liquor traffic, or the 
liquor traffic will abolish Christian civilization. We 
are not in this conflict for a day, we are not in it for a 
week, we are not in it for a year, but Ave have enlisted 
in this campaign to stay until the close of the war. 

The purpose of the temperance men of this country 
has been for years well defined, and they have not 
changed it, and will not change it, until victory shall 
come. They demand the complete outlawry of drunk- 
ard-making, and they will accept no compromise that 
allows it to exist in any form. 

There is no doubt about the object of the temper- 
ance movement. The temperance men intend to de- 
stroy the drunkard-making system of America, root and 
branch. There is no such thing as compromise upon 
the issue. In the end, the liquor traffic of this country 
will abolish temperance, or temperance will abolish the 
liquor traffic. The issue is squarely made and squarely 
joined before the people; hence I say, I would not lead 
any man into the temperance ranks unless he comes 
because he believes it is right, and comes to stay. I 
would have you take the facts to your home, to your 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 3? 

office, to your store or place of business ; and when you 
are alone, and away from all exciting influences, sit 
down calmly and honestly, and, after having examined 
the liquor side and the temperance side of the question 
with equal care, make up your verdict in accordance 
with your honest judgment. If I should succeed in 
convincing you that I am right, if your judgment, rea- 
son, intelligence lead you to that conclusion, and then 
you refuse to work up to the full measure of your con- 
victions, you are guilty of injustice, or cowardice, of 
which I would not believe you capable. 

The whole issue involved is simply a question of fact. 
If the dram-shop of this country is a blessing ; if it 
makes honest voters, honest citizens, kind husbands, 
and loving fathers; if it leads to an observance of the 
Christian Sabbath ; if it leads to morality, manhood, 
and intelligence ; if it discourages crime, vice, pauper- 
ism, illegal voting, and false swearing, then there can 
be but one position for you and me to take on the ques- 
tion. If the liquor traffic is a blessing, every patriotic 
American, every man who loves his country, owes it to 
his citizenship, to his own sense of honor, to stand by 
that traffic, talk for it, work for it, vote for it ; if he is 
a praying man, to .pray for it ; if he is a preacher, he is 
a humbug if he will not preach for it. 

If the reverse is true — if the liquor traffic of this 
country makes drunkards, cruel husbands, and unkind 
fathers ; if it breaks women's hearts and degrades 
children ; if it fills our penitentiaries, our almshouses, 
and our jails ; if it stimulates riot in our great cities ; 
if it stands and laughs at the stuffing of the ballot- 
box ; if it causes men to swear falsely on the witness- 
stand or in the jury-box ; in other words, if it is an 
enemy to this Government ; if it is an enemy of law, and 
order, and civilization, then will you give me a single 
reason why you and I, as honest men, should vote " not 
guilty," and sustain it, in the face of such a record ? 

We are not to settle this question as individuals. 
The institution is a public one. If it be destroyed, 
that must be done by the State and National Govern- 
ments. The part that you will take, the part that I 
shall take, in destroying it, must be that of citizens 



38 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

of the State and of the Republic. The question then 
is, not how it will affect me individually, but " What 
is for the best good of the whole State? " 

You should weigh honestly every argument that 
liquor men may bring, before making up your verdict. 
You should weigh just as honestly the arguments of 
the temperance men. 

A man asked me some time ago : " Would you 
advise a temperance man to read whiskey papers ? " 

I answered : " I would not give much for a temper- 
ance man if he would not do it. You are not to settle 
this question as an individual. You are a citizen of the 
State, and when you vote on this question, your vote 
does not alone affect yourself, but the whole State as 
well. You must forget your individuality, and re- 
member your position as the patriot and citizen. If 
there are any arguments in favor of the liquor traffic, 
you owe it to your honor, manhood, and truth to 
weigh carefully every inducement the liquor men may 
bring to influence you in making up your verdict. 
Take the liquor traffic and all the good it has done, and 
put it on one side of your scales of judgment. Do not 
leave out anything. If there is any doubt give the 
criminal the benefit of it. That is ihe rule of law we 
want applied in this case. After putting all the good 
it has done on one side of the scale, put all the evil it 
has done on the other side. Take its record in this 
country, weigh it honestly and well, and if you believe, 
after an investigation of this kind, that the liquor 
traffic has done more good than it has done injury; 
that it is a blessing to the country; that it tends to 
perpetuate the Government, then it is your duty, be- 
yond all question, to stand by and support the business. 
If the dram-shop of this country is an enemy to the 
State, an enemy of our institutions, I cannot see how 
any honest man dare stand and defend it — defend an 
institution that is opposed to the highest interests of 
his country. A man who will give aid or comfort to 
an enemy of his country, and thereby help to injure it, 
is a traitor/' 

Let us now examine the case. Every person who 
reads will be satisfied that this question must be 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 39 

settled in this country. The question, " What shall 
the Government do with the alcoholic liquor traffic ? " 
is one that cannot fail to command attention. 

As surely as this American people is a nation of 
freemen who govern themselves, just as certainly they 
will render a verdict in this case, even though that 
verdict destroys every political party that has an 
existence in this Republic. 

Go home to-night, and when you reach there you 
find your boy in bed ; he has been indisposed for 
several days ; you see he is sick ; you put your hand 
on his head ; it is burning hot ; put your fingers on 
his pulse ; you find it running above a hundred ; speak 
to him ; he answers in broken sentences. You at once 
send for the physician. When he comes you ask : 

" What is the matter with Willie ? " 

The physician makes an examination of the boy's 
body, asks how he has been feeling for the past few 
days, and tells you that Willie has a fever. 

You might ask your physician, "What is fever ?" 

He would reply, " The child has taken, through the 
nose and lungs, malarial poison. The fever and the in- 
crease of pulse are simply nature's efforts to expel the 
poison and save the child's life. This increased activity 
of the vital forces is nature's way of defending herself 
against the poison which would destroy the organism 
unless expelled." 

You ask : " What shall we do for Willie ? " 

The medical man will answer : " I shall leave medicine 
to help nature to do its work, and instruct you how to 
nurse him. Willie will get well." 

Then you ask : " Doctor, how long before he can 
recover?" 

The doctor will answer you : " Never, until the poi- 
son, the cause of the heat, the cause of the increased 
pulsation, is driven out of the system." 

He v/ill tell you that you can do nothing more than 
to help nature expel the poison, and when the poison 
is gone, the heat of the body will become normal, the 
pulse will go down, and the child will live. 

To-day the political pulse is feverish. Men are talk- 
ing, women are working and praying. Organizations 



40 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

are being formed, conventions are being held. What 
is the cause of this agitation ? It is the poison of the 
liquor traffic in the political system. The temperance 
movement is a social power which will cease when the 
poison is expelled. Until that time there is no hope 
of political or social health. 

In past ages governments born of a higher civiliza- 
tion developed rapidly for a few years and then died, 
thereby destroying the hopes of the people. Such gov- 
ernments sickened and died because social poison in 
their political systems was not expelled by rational 
treatment. This is the history of the world, and the 
only hope for long life of the American Government is 
the destruction of false notions of dealing with social, 
political disease. The hope that this Republic will live 
longer than other governments have, is based upon the 
increasing intelligence of the masses in regard to mat- 
ters of social rule. 

When a man says Americans should follow any cus- 
tom, because people follow it in another land, he talks 
nonsense. Take the history of the world, and you find 
that, after a few years, or at most a few centuries, gov- 
ernments created with every prospect of success have 
died of diseases generated in their own systems by neg* 
lect of the ordinary rules of political hygiene. They 
have become things of the past, because they have aU 
lowed the poison of social and political vices to remain 
in their organisms. 

The only hope for this'Government is, that the states- 
men who have charge of the life and health of the Re- 
public shall profit by the lessons of past ages. One 
thing I fear is the tendency to cling to customs and 
habits of other lands. The attempt to develop here 
the customs and practices that have destroyed liberty 
in other lands will be national suicide. 

This Government is largely like the people ; it is 
widely different from most European forms of rule. 
Take this thought into your minds, and keep it there. 
I have never heard a gentleman talking against prohibi- 
tion and defending the liquor traffic in this country 
who used this word " government " in its American 
sense. Liquor men always use the old or despotic 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. < 41 

sense of the word. Daylight and midnight are not 
more opposite. * In this country the Government is 
made by the people ; in Europe it is made /^?r the peo- 
ple. Here it comes up from the people ; there it comes 
down from the king. Here it is the people's power 
delegated to official representatives ; there it is Di- 
vine (?) power delegated to the ruler. Here it is intel- 
ligent common-sense ; there a superstitious clinging to 
old forms. Once, while I was speaking in Iowa, a gen- 
tleman interrupted me, saying : " Mr. Finch, if this 
Government should pass a prohibitory liquor law, it 
would become a tyranny/' 

I said to him, " Please say that again, and say it 
slowly so I can catch it." 

He repeated it : " If the Government passes a pro- 
hibitory liquor bill, the law becomes a tyrannj 7 ." 

I asked, " Sir, who is the Government?" 
. He answered, " The people." 

"The Government being the people, if a prohibitory 
liquor lav/ is made by its authority, it must be either 
an organic law ordered by a direct vote of the people, 
or a statutory or functional law, enacted by the people, 
through their delegated representatives?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" If the operation of such a lav/ is tyrannical, then 
the people are the tyrants? " 

"Yes." 

" Over whom are the people going to tyrannize ? " 

"The people." 

I asked him if that would not be a good deal like a 
man sitting down on himself. 

It is the grossest kind of ignorance to say that in 
this country, where all political power is inherent in the 
people, any despotism can ever exist until the people 
place themselves in a position where they cannot 
govern themselves. When a man talks about the pop- 
ular will in a government of the people, being tyranny, 
he talks nonsense. In this country the Government 
is a government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people. This should be the fact, whether it is or 
not. Consequently, the people are the units of Gov- 
ernment. 



42 .THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

In a building of brick or of stone, the unit which 
makes up the structure is the single brick or stone in the 
wall. If I ask upon what the strength of this opera- 
house depends, you would answer me, that its shape has 
something to do with it ; that the work upon it has some- 
thing to do with it ; but its strength primarily depends 
upon the stone in the wall. If the stone is rotten, I 
care not how good the work, I care not how good the 
plan, the building will be unstable — it will not be 
strong. The strength of the building is the combi- 
nation of the strength of the units of the structure. 
In this Government the unit is the man, the woman, 
the child. Each man and each woman who sits before 
me is a part of the American Republic. The strength 
of the Government may depend somewhat upon its 
form, somewhat upon the Constitution, yet primarily 
it must of necessity depend upon the character of the 
individual citizen. Anything that debauches the citi- 
zen will injure the Government. Anything that ele- 
vates the citizen will elevate the Government. To ruin 
a republic is simply to ruin its citizens. To strengthen 
a republic, you have but to build up the intelligence, 
morality, and character of its units. 

As the Government partakes of the nature of its 
citizens, so it is subject to disease, like the people who 
compose it. Whenever you see a moral, social, or po- 
litical fever sweep over the country — when the political 
pulse runs up, every thinking man must perceive that 
somewhere in the organism of the Government there is 
a poison to cause the fever. Especially is this true if 
the fever is not temporary. Let us examine this tem- 
perance fever. It is as well marked a type of social or 
political fever as any country ever had. It commenced 
almost with the birth of the Republic. It swept over 
the States, increasing in force until about 1856, when 
suddenly in the political organism another fever broke 
out. It was acute in form, and yet the strange fact in 
regard to these two national diseases is that inherited 
poison is the primary cause of both. The poison of 
slavery was transmitted to the child from the parent, 
and for long years it caused local irritation ; a breaking 
out in certain limbs of the body ensued, until in 1856 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 43 

it assumed an acute form. In i860 the question was 
fairly raised, " Shall the Government die or live?" 
As soon as that question came up, the temperance 
men and religious men of the nation said, '" This ques- 
tion of the continuance of the nation's life must be 
settled at once. If the Government be killed, then our 
reform will die with it. Let us save the nation's life." 

But no sooner was that fever broken up, no sooner 
was the poison which caused it eliminated from the 
body of the Government, and risk of its return avoided 
by the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution 
of the United States, than from the north to the south, 
from the east to the west of this nation, the temper- 
ance fever broke out anew, until to-day you can hardly 
ride upon a railroad train but you hear people talking 
about it ; in the post-office they are discussing it ; the 
newspapers are full of it ; in the churches the ministers 
preach about it ; in the prayer-meetings the Christians 
pray about it ; in political conventions the politicians 
swear about it. There is not a section of this land 
where it is not felt to-day. What does it tell you ? 
No matter whether you drink liquor or abstain, what 
does it show you ? It must tell you that somewhere in 
the political organism of this nation there is a cause. 
It will not do to say that this excitement is caused by 
a few fanatics and a few old women. To say that, is 
to say the American people are fools. If the American 
nation, for more than seventy years, has been excited 
and nervous over the stories of fanatics and old women, 
the American people are bigger fools than anybody 
ever supposed them to be. 

You know that the best men of to-day are talking 
about this question. You know that there is some- 
thing, somewhere in the political organization of this 
country, that causes this fever. You ask me how long 
before it will cease. I answer, as the physician 
answered in regard to your boy, " Never, until the 
grog-shop poison, the cause of this disease, is forever 
eliminated from the political organism of this country." 
This question you must settle. You cannot nominate 
a man for Congress ; you cannot nominate a man for 
the Legislature, — from this time forward — you will 



44 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

never even nominate a man for President where this 
issue will not be forced upon him. 

The liquor oligarchy crack the whip of political cor- 
ruption over the political parties of this country, and 
cry, " Do our bidding or perish." You may talk about 
postponing it, but the drunkard-makers demand of 
every candidate for office that he get down in the dirt 
of political subserviency. If he wants a nomination 
he must come into convention with the token of his 
own defilement on him, so that the delegates who are 
tools of the grog-shops may smell it. If he will not 
do that, he must keep his mouth closed and his princi- 
ples to himself. 

When the temperance agitation started in this 
country, there were two classes of men, just as there are 
now. One class said, " If the liquor traffic is a good 
thing, let it go free ; — do not hamper it with law ; do 
not shackle it; give it a fair chance for existence ; do 
not put any more chains on it than you would on a 
grocery or a dry-goods store. If the liquor business 
is a friend of the Republic, the Republic ought to 
be a friend to the liquor business and should leave 
it free and unfettered. On the contrary, if it tends to 
loosen the bands of the young Republic, and break 
down our institutions, kill it, and kill it at once." 

The other class of men said, u Hold on ; that will not 
do ; the people are not educated up to prohibition." — 
Did you ever hear anybody say, " the people are not 
educated up to prohibition"? I always feel like 
thanking a liquor man when he uses the expression. 
You never heard him say, "the people are not educated 
down to prohibition." By his own language he admits 
that prohibition is on a higher moral, social, and politi- 
cal level than the license compromise with evil. — This 
other class of men went on to say, " There is no use in 
making a law until the people are educated. up to the 
point of obeying it." And when they said that, they 
said God Almighty made a mistake. You ask me what 
I mean ? I mean this : That if God had not passed 
His prohibitory commandments until the people were 
educated up to the point of obeying them, He never 
would have ordained them. He said, " Thou shalt not 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 45 

steal. " They were stealing then in the wilderness, and 
there is stealing in America to-day. He said, " Thou 
shalt not bear false witness." I presume they were do- 
ing it then, and it is certainly being done to-day. If you 
do not think so, indict a liquor-seller, and bring him 
into court, and ask some of his customers to swear 
against him. While God amid the thunders of the 
mountains was saying, " Thou shalt have no other 
God," His high-priest, at the foot of the mountain, was 
setting up a calf for the people to worship. 

There is a class of men, and we have a great many of 
them, claiming to be leaders of public opinion, who 
are incessantly preaching that there is no use in mak- 
ing a law until the people are educated up to the point 
of obeying it, while they know, if they know anything 
of the principles of government and law, that it is the 
thinnest twaddle ever used by demagogues to catch 
fools. 

Law is not passed for men who will obey, — it is 
passed for the men who are not educated up to the 
point of doing so. If all the people of this country 
were educated up to the point where they would not 
steal, would you want any law against stealing? If 
they were educated up to the point where they would 
not murder, would you want any law against murder ? 
What do you want any law against stealing for ? Not 
for the men who are educated up to the point where 
they will not steal. You want a law against stealing 
for those who are not educated up to the belief that it 
is particularly wrong to take your horse. You do not 
want a law against murder for men who are educated 
up to the point where they will not kill, but you want 
a law against murder for men who are not educated up 
to the point of regarding human life as sacred. The 
whole theory of law is, to deal with the law-breaker, 
and not the man who will obev. It is for the men on 
a degraded plane, and not for the men on an exalted 
plane. Law is the educator. 

This is true throughout all of God's universe. Go home 
to-night and take your baby boy in your arms. Baby 
knows nothing about law. He can say a few words — 
nouns, the names of things with which he is familiar. 



46 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

If you tell him to say law, he will say it, but he does 
not know the difference between law and a turnip or a 
cabbage. There is a fire in the stove and it is hot. 
Baby is attracted by the red color. He places his little 
hand on the stove and is burned. Baby is punished 
by the law, even more than an old man who knew all 
about it, because the man's hand is hard and baby's 
is soft. The law is there as an educator, and baby 
will not be as apt to put his fingers out in that way 
again. A mother goes up-stairs with her little one. 
There is a chair by the window and the window is open. 
The mother is busy ; baby creeps to the chair and 
climbs upon it — tumbles out of the window and breaks 
his neck. What killed him ? The law of gravitation ; 
yet baby did not know of the law. The law was 
passed upon correct principles, and it has existed in 
nature since the foundation of the universe. You 
gray-haired men can almost remember the time when 
Sir Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravitation. 
Before that, there was not a man in the world who 
could tell why he fell down. They did not know why 
they did not fall off the earth instead of towards it. 
Every step that science takes, every step that the med- 
ical profession takes, is simply digging out laws that 
have existed since the earth was formed. 

God said it is wrong to steal : " Thou shalt not." 
The law lay along the principle. God said it was 
wrong to bear false witness : " Thou shalt not." The 
law lay along the principle. God said it was wrong to 
kill : " Thou shalt not." The law lay along the prin- 
ciple. That is God's plan. I presume that we have 
men in this country, who, if God had invited them into 
the Garden of Eden, would have told Him He was mak- 
ing blunders, and advised Him to change His plans. 

In my own State, in the cattle counties, for several 
years, the law against murder was practically a dead let- 
ter. Public sentiment was very low. It was really con- 
sidered a mark of honor to have killed a man. If a man 
told another he lied, a revolver would be drawn, and life 
.J>st. The people said : " Served him right." A man 
going along the street was pointed out as having killed 
two men. Several times I have been touched on the 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 47 

shoulder by a friend who said : " That person has killed 
a man." Public sentiment justified it. For a long time 
it was impossible to indict a man for murder and con- 
vict him on trial. Perhaps there was not a man on the 
jury but had committed a murder himself. The result 
was " not guilty/' or " killed the man in self-defence." 
But the Government did not pass laws on the level with 
the moral sense of the people. The Government did 
not say: " We cannot prohibit you from shooting, so 
we will pass a license law and allow you to shoot, if 
you will give us $500 ; we will keep the penalties down 
until you are educated up to the point of thinking it is 
wrong to kill;" The Government said, " It is wrong to 
kill," and it held the law over these counties, till the 
people came up, up, UP to the law, and to-day there is 
no portion of the United States where the law is better 
enforced. It is better enforced in the counties of Ne- 
braska than in the cities, of Chicago and Milwaukee. 
The State acted on the correct principle : the law was 
used as an educator. 

The talk of the license men is that the Government 
shall pass a law on the level of the worst element of 
the people, and then educate the people up through 
and above it. This is utter nonsense. The license 
idea has heretofore prevailed. License laws have been 
passed. For more than seventy years, in this country, 
we have been trying to regulate and restrain the liquor 
business with license laws, and what has been the 
result ? 

A gentleman said to me the other day : " Prohibition 
does not prohibit." 

I said : " That is not the question. The question 
for you as a license man to answer is, ' Does regulation 
regulate ? ' " 

When prohibition has been tried as long as license 
has been, backed by the State and National Govern- 
ments, if it prove as big a fizzle as license now is, 
we will consent to the adoption of a new plan. We 
are not particular about the plan ; it is simply the re- 
sult we wish to achieve. For more than seventy years 
we have tried this license system. The liquor business 
was weak when the license plan was adopted ; but 



48 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LTQIJOR TRAFFIC. 

under the fostering care of this accursed fraud it has 
become the autocrat of politics ; and you know this to 
be the fact. 

That license laws are a dead letter, no man will dare 
to deny. In your own State the lav/ says the dram- 
shops shall not sell liquor to minors. They do sell to 
minors. The law says they shall not sell liquor to 
drunkards. They do sell to drunkards. The law says 
they shall not sell liquor on Sunday. They do sell on 
Sunday. The law says they shall not sell adulterated 
liquors. They do sell poisoned liquors. For more 
than seventy years in different States in this Union 
the people have tried to make this old license fizzle 
work. The temperance people during this time have 
done all that they could to secure obedience to the 
law, and to save men from the pernicious influence of 
the licensed liquor traffic. They have used the pledge. 
They have gone down into the gutter and lifted out 
the victims of this devilish system. And when they 
have lifted them out of the pitfall, the license men vote 
to keep the pitfall open, so that other men may fall in ; 
thus temperance men have a job on hand all the time. 
Temperance workers have established temperance 
lodges. They have built Friendly inns. They have 
built coffee-houses. They have established reading- 
rooms, and put lecturers on the platform and paid them. 
They have circulated books and arguments ; and they 
have gone into towns and cities and organized leagues 
to enforce this law and try to make it work. Now, 
after seventy years of earnest trial, after seventy years 
of tears and prayer and hard work, and money-giving 
and struggling, I stand here to say, what no man dares 
challenge, that this work has demonstrated the license 
system of this country to be the most unmitigated 
humbug that was ever invented by bad men to fool 
an ignorant people. But the license man springs up, 
ready to raise an objection : 

" You have laws enough now, if you would only en- 
force them." 

• " Sir, we have tried to enforce them, though they 
are not laws of our making. We have no faith in 
them ; have you ? " 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 49 

"Yes," he answers. 

" You are in favor of license ? " 

" Yes." 

" You voted for license ? " 

"Yes." 

" You believe it will work ? " 

"Yes.'' 

" Why, then, do you not make it work? If you are a 
license man, are you not ashamed to come and ask the 
prohibitionist, 'Why do you not enforce our law?' 
Why do you not enforce it yourselves? We do not 
believe in the system. We have worked for its en- 
forcement, because it was the best thing we could do. 
We never believed in it." 

Before the high license law was passed in Nebraska 
two years ago, I was talking with a gentleman, a 
member of the State Senate. He asked : 

" What are you going to do about this high license 
law?" 

I answered, " Nothing." 

" Are you in favor of it ? " 

"No, sir." 

" Why not ? " 

" I believe if whiskey-selling is a good thing, the 
poor man has as much right to sell as the rich man. 
If it is a good thing, let everybody sell it. If it is a 
curse, LET NO ONE SELL IT." 

He said : " That is theory." 

I replied : " It is fact." 

He said : " A prohibitory law cannot be passed, and 
could not be enforced if it was passed." 

" Yes, a prohibitory law could be enforced." 

" But who will do it ? " 

" The prohibitionists. Give them the law, and if 
they do not make it operate then repeal it." 

He said : " This license law will be enforced." 

I answered : " You know, and every man in this 
country knows, that a license law never was enforced 
and that it never will be. License iaw T means, let 
the liquor man pay so much money for license ; then 
let him do as he pleases. You support license because 
it is as near free whiskey as you can get. If this 

4 



50 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

license law is passed it will be a dead letter because 
your men will not do anything, and the prohibitionists 
do not believe in it." 

Said he : " If it be passed, it will be enforced." 

" Who is to see that it will be enforced ? " 

" The license men." 

The law was passed. When it came into effect last 
June it was universally disobeyed over the State. 
The liquor men would not even pay the license. The 
prohibitionists waited to see what the license men 
would do. They wanted to see if men who talked and 
voted license were honest. The license men did not 
lift a finger ! At last an editor, in a long article, 
declared that I was the leader of the strongest political 
temperance organization in the country, and that it was 
my duty to enforce that law ! The same man had been 
in the Legislature and had voted for the law. A few 
days after I met him, and he inquired : 

"Did you see that editorial of mine?" 

" Yes ; and I laughed." 

" Why did you laugh ? " 

" To think what a fool you are." 

" What do you mean ? " 

I asked: "Whose law is it; your law or mine?" 

" It is our law." 

" You believe in it ; I do not. You voted for it ;. I 
did not. You say regulation will regulate ; I say it 
will not. Is not such the fact? " 

"Yes." 

" Then take care of your own babies, please. Do 
not come around to me to have me take care of them." 

In not a single instance in the State did the license 
men lift a finger to enforce the law ; and when at last 
the rebellion had become general, the prohibitionists 
of Nebraska stepped out to say : " Drunkard-makers, 
you must pay this license." And after one of the 
bitterest fights ever made in our State, they were com- 
pelled to pay over the money, in all sections of the 
State, though the law was and is a dead letter in all 
other respects. 

As well try to regulate a rattlesnake by holding it 
by the tail, as to permit and then attempt to regulate 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 5 1 

saloons. The way to regulate a rattlesnake is to kill 
it, smash its head — its tail may live until sundown, 
but it cannot bite. The way to regulate the liquor 
business, is to kill its head, the licensed grog-shop, the 
school of vice, crime, and political corruption. Its tail 
may live in cellars and dark places during the twilight 
of ignorance and superstition, but when its head is 
destroyed it is powerless to resist — to bulldoze officers 
or breed assassins. 

In the city of Omaha, Neb., there was living, a little 
more than a year ago, a gentleman by the name of 
Watson B. Smith, clerk of the United States Court, 
one of the finest gentlemen ever in the State — a lead- 
ing politician, an earnest Christian, a prominent lay- 
man in the Baptist Church ; a man who had done as 
much for Nebraska Sabbath-schools and Nebraska 
civilization as any other man. Mr. Smith was an 
honest man. He said: " The liquor-sellers must obey 
the law in this State." Some business men rallied 
round him. They tried to make the liquor-sellers 
take out licenses in accordance with the laws of the 
State. They commenced their prosecutions in July, 
and in October Col. Watson B. Smith, at the hour of 
midnight, was shot down by assassins, at his office 
door, in the United States Government building, for 
no other reason than that he was working to make 
liquor cut-throats obey law. 

In all parts of this land the liquor business to-day 
is an outlaw, and there is nothing too vile or too mean 
for it to do. When a man says, " I am a license man/' 
the only thing I desire to ask of him is to be an honest 
believer ; that is, to try to enforce the law in "which 
he believes. 

If you think license ever was, or ever can be made 
to work, suppose you try it to-morrow morning. Go 
down and swear out warrants against liquor-dealers 
who are selling liquors to minors ; arrest those who 
are selling adulterated liquors ; keep it up for six 
months, and if at the end of that time you are not a 
prohibitionist, I will buy you the best suit of clothes 
to be found in this town. You know, my friends — I 
care not how much you talk in favor of license — that 



52 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

you do not try to make license work. You know that 
if you did, the liquor men would endeavor to injure 
your business and smirch your character; that they 
would hire bullies to come up behind you and club 
you on the head. In Milwaukee, simply because some 
of the citizens asked that the law might be enforced so 
far as closing disreputable places on Sunday, the liquor 
men organized and boycotted every man who dared 
ask the enforcement. 

After seventy years' trial every man must be con- 
vinced that to talk regulation, to talk license, is to advo- 
cate the most contemptible nonsense. 

The question which comes up as we proceed to look 
for a remedy is : What is the nature of the dram-shop 
— what is its relation to the Government ? I said a 
few moments ago — and I wish to repeat it, because it is 
the turning-point of this discussion — that this Govern- 
ment is not like European Governments. That men 
drink liquor in Germany and Russia is no reason why 
the liquor traffic should be authorized by American 
Governments. On the contrary, it is the reverse of a 
reason. The difference in the forms of government 
must be remembered. 

Suppose the people of Russia become drunken, de- 
bauched, riotous, and violent, who will control them ? 
" The Government." Who is the Government ? " The 
Czar with his army." He can control them, because 
the Government is distinct from, and independent of 
the subject in his empire. There is an immense stand- 
ing army at the command of the Czar ready to suppress 
any uprising of a drunken, an ignorant, and a riotous 
populace. Suppose the people of this country become 
drunken, debauched, and riotous — who is going to con- 
trol them? "The Government." Who is the Gov- 
ernment? "The people." Then the people are to 
govern themselves? "Yes." But the people being the 
rioters, and at the same time being the governing 
power, the Government becomes anarchy. You see 
the difference at once. 

The only safety of this country is the intelligence of 
its voters ; intelligence on the farms and in the work- 
shops ; intelligence so widely diffused that high and 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 53 

low, rich and poor, shall he alike educated. To say 
that, because an institution can safely exist where there 
is a standing army to control it, it can exist without 
danger in a republic, where the citizen is the controlling 
power, is foolish. 

Ever since I have lived in Nebraska, men have come 
to me and said : " Your taxes amount to so many dol- 
lars." " For what ? " " In part for school purposes." 

Why do they tax me? I have no child old enough 
to go to school. Why do they require me to pay for 
schools ? Because the very basis of this Government is 
the intelligence of its citizens. When you educate the 
boys you strengthen the Government, and by strength- 
ening the Government you insure your property, be- 
cause property can only exist while Government stands. 
There can be no property without law, and law is the 
child of government. I never in my life paid a cent into 
a school fund that I did not regard it as just so much 
insurance on my life and property. It costs less money 
to educate a boy and make a man of him, than to let 
him go to the bad and take care of him afterward. 

Take the instance of the James boys. The twenty 
thousand dollars that Governor Crittenden gave to 
have Jesse James assassinated would have educated 
twenty boys in the path of manhood. The James boys 
at an early age were thrown into the society of bush- 
whackers and renegades, and grew up in that terrible 
school of outlawry and crime. For twenty years the 
State of Missouri trembled in their power. Their train- 
ing with cut-throat bands made them criminals. It 
is cheaper for the Government to educate the children 
than to take care of the criminals. 

The foundation of this Government rests on four 
things : the Church — and I do not speak of any par- 
ticular Church, but of the Church universal — the school, 
the press, and the home. Take these four institutions 
from America, drive them out so they will not come 
back, and you can dig the grave of this Republic, and 
the corpse will soon be ready. 

When the people tax me to maintain schools, on the 
theory that the intelligence and virtue of the people 
afe the only true safeguards of a republic, I have 3 



54 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

right to ask, " Does the liquor traffic develop or destroy 
intelligence and virtue?" You say that the common 
school has a wonderful influence. What influence has 
the dram-shop ? It must have some kind. 

Four years ago I received a challenge from Judge 
Isaac S. Haskell, of Omaha, to come to that city and 
discuss with him the question of prohibition. The 
judge was a license man, and I very gladly accepted 
the invitation to meet him. I thought he would de- 
fend the liquor traffic, and I prosecute it ; consequently 
I desired to get the evidence against his old client in 
the town where the discussion was to take place. I 
went to Omaha after facts. The first place I visited 
was the office of the superintendent of city schools. 
I asked the superintendent, " How many schools have 
you here ? " 

He answered, " Seven : six ward schools and a high- 
school ; also, a college and some private schools." 

" How many teachers have you in the city institu- 
tions ? " 

" Eighty-four." 

" How many graduated last year? " 

" One hundred and eight." 

I then went to look up the record of the other schools, 
the dram-shops. I went to their superintendent, the 
police judge, and asked him : 

" How are your schools getting along ? " 

He said, " Are you drunk ? " 

I said, " You should not think I am drunk because 
most of the men brought here are." 

He inquired what I meant. I explained. He laughed. 
" So you think I am the superintendent of the grog- 
shops." 

" Are you not ? " 

" Well," said he, "I do not know but I might be 
so termed." 

" Well, judge," said I, " how many schools of this 
kind have you in the city? " 

" One hundred and fifty-five that are licensed.". 

" How many teachers in those schools ? " 

" Including cappers, bar-tenders, and owners, about 
four hundred." 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 55 

" How many scholars did you have up for graduation 
during the year? " 

Opening his commitment-book, he rapidly separated 
the criminal entries into classes, and after adding, said : 
" I gave diplomas to the rock-pile, county jail, and fined 
about twelve hundred. Some graduated three or four 
times over ; but it is perfectly safe to assume that there 
were six hundred different graduates." 

Now, my friends, as thinking people, I want to ask 
you if the social effect of this system of education is 
not a question of importance. You say that these free 
schools with seven buildings, eighty-four teachers, and 
one hundred and eight graduates, have a wonderful in- 
fluence — what kind of an influence have the dram- 
shops? There are seven schools to one hundred and 
fifty-five drinking-places, eighty-four teachers to four 
hundred cappers, bar-tenders, and owners; one hundred 
and eight graduates in learning, against six hundred 
graduates in crime. Now I submit that it is a question 
that every man who loves his country must ask him- 
self, " What is the nature of the educational influence 
of the grog-shops on our voters and people ?" If the 
dram-shop education is good, then take the dram-shop, 
and place it beside the school, and we shall have the 
home, the church, the school, the newspaper, and the 
dram-shop as the bulwark of our liberties. If its 
education is all bad, if it tears down the work of the 
other institutions, then let the dram-shop be abolished. 
What sense is there in educating a boy until he is 
twenty-one years of age, and then opening a drinking- 
hell to send him to a drunkard's grave, to prison, or to 
the gallows ? What sense is there in running these two 
systems of education ? The dram-shop destroys the 
work your common schools are doing, debauches and 
rots the very foundations of this Government, by cor- 
rupting the individual character of the men and women 
who compose the Government. 

You may ask what is the influence of the liquor 
traffic. I do not need to insult your intelligence by 
going into details to show you. You all know. Sup- 
pose you open twenty-five drinking-places in Wau- 
kesha for the first time in the history of this town. 



56 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Suppose you never had them here before. When you 
have opened them and they are in good running order, 
what other building will you have to erect in this 
town ? Suppose you open twenty-five dry-goods stores ; 
they would take care of themselves. With twenty-five 
groceries, it is the same ; but with twenty-five grog- 
shops you must have a prison. You can no more run 
a grog-shop without a prison as a tail, and officers as 
strings, than you can fly a kite without the same requi- 
sites. Why do you need a police force in a city like 
this? How often are your policemen called upon to 
go to a church and arrest old Christians coming from 
prayer-meeting under the influence of Christ's spirit, to 
keep them from fighting? How many knock-down 
fights did you ever know to occur in this town under 
the intoxicating influence of pork and beans bought in 
a grocery store? How many men did you ever know 
in this town to go home at night ,under the influence of 
new boots bought in a boot store and kick their wives 
out into the snow ? How many assaults and batteries and 
riots were ever caused in this town by the stimulating 
effect of beefsteak bought in a butcher-shop ? What 
other institution in the world is there that necessitates 
officers to arrest its products, and prisons in which to 
lock them up? 

I was in Illinois City last winter when a gentleman 
asked me to ride through the place with him. In riding 
through the city I was astonished to see how their 
dram-shops were located — three in a bunch — the bunches 
being in different parts of the city. I said to the gen- 
tleman, " These liquor-dealers must be fools ; why do 
they open their grog-shops so near each other ?" 

He said, " We compel them to locate together, or we 
will not license them." 

" Why so ? " 

He answered, " If three of them are together one 
policeman can watch the three. If they were scattered 
all over town we should require a larger police force." 

Speaking with the chief of police of one of the largest 
cities of this country, a man who drinks liquor and who 
is a license man, I asked, " If you abolish every drink- 
ing-place in this city, how many policemen would be 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 57 

required ?" He replied, "Five hundred night watch- 
men could do our work." They have at the present 
time more than twenty-five hundred armed, disciplined, 
and uniformed policemen. 

No honest man can doubt that the liquor-shops of 
this country are primary schools of crime. 

At a fair, sometime since, I addressed a very large 
audience in the forenoon ; in the afternoon I was walk- 
ing about the grounds looking at the exhibition, when 
a man came to me and said : 

" Are you the man who talked temperance this fore- 
noon? " 

" Yes, prohibition and temperance." 

He said, " Well, it all means the same thing." 

I told him some people thought so. 

" Now," said he, " I do not want to insult you." 

I felt it was exceedingly fortunate both for him and 
for me, — it might save unpleasantness. 

He said, " I am a liquor-dealer, and the managers of 
this fair did a dirty mean thing to get you here. This 
fair represents all industries, and mine is a legitimate 
business. For them to get anybody here, at a public 
fair, to bring into disrepute one of the industries of the 
country, is mean." 

I said, " It does look as though there was a reason for 
your complaint. My friend, I believe you have been 
insulted, and, if I was in your place, I would go over to 
the president's office, and kick up the biggest row they 
ever had on this ground. You say this is for all the in- 
dustries of the country." I took out of my pocket a 
premium list, and said, " Here is a premium for the 
nicest horses, the nicest cows, the best calves ; for 
chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese ; for all kinds of 
ladies' work ; for cheese and butter. The managers of 
this fair seem to have offered a premium to encourage 
every industry but yours. Now I would raise a row." 

He asked, " What do you mean ? " 

I replied, " You do a legitimate business. You are 
manufacturing and turning out your products all the 
time. They ought to offer a premium on some of your 
finished jobs. They ought to put down $25 for the 
best specimen of a bummer made in a grog-shop in this 



58 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

country; $15 for the next, and $io for the next, and a 
red ribbon for the fourth. If you will go with me to 
the president we will ask his reasons for not doing it." 

The liquor-dealer straightened up, and said I was an 
infernal fool. 

Drunkard-makers say temperance men talk gush and 
nonsense. But, I answer, the liquor business can no 
longer plead the baby act in this country. It must 
stand on the same plane of political economy with every 
other trade. It must be judged by its results. 

In the West, since I have lived here — and I have 
been here some years — I have heard some men say that 
in New York City the Democrats stuffed the ballot- 
boxes and hired repeaters to vote " early and often." 
You ask me if they did this. Undoubtedly they did. 
Up and down the land we have heard men talking 
about the purity of the ballot-box. People say, " Does 
not corruption exist in New York?" Of course it does. 
If it exists, what is the cause of it ? Did you ever stop 
to think? There is no such corruption in the country 
districts. You cannot corrupt the farmers, you cannot 
corrupt the sober men. If corruption exists at the bal- 
lot-box there must be a cause for it. What is the cause ? 

There stands a workman ; he does not drink ; he has 
money in his pocket ; he has a good job ; his brain is 
clear; his wife afid family are happy. For the first 
time he goes to a drinking-place and drinks. During 
four or five years he goes down and down, and by and 
by he gets reckless, loses his business, and his family 
have to beg. He is an outcast on the street. On an 
election morning this man stands on a street corner, 
ragged, dirty, sick ; craving for something to drink ; 
such a craving for the poison, that he would sell his 
soul for a drink of liquor. The only thing that man 
possesses which will bring money, is his vote. Do you 
suppose that man, with morals gone, reputation gone- 
starving, ragged, and hungry — will vote like an American 
citizen, according to his convictions, if he can get money 
for voting otherwise? Sad to confess, no. 

The dram-shop is the cause of most of the corruption 
in our great centres of population. Talk about purify- 
ing the ballot-box in our great cities ! The ballot-box 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 59 

never will be purified until the voters are purified. You 
may pass election laws and fence around the ballot-box, 
but the only hope of its integrity lies in a pure citizen- 
ship. 

What is true of New York is true of every great 
city. The debauchery of the voter, the corruption of 
the ballot-box is an effect ; and the cause is the Ameri- 
can dram-shop. The tendency of the liquor interest 
in this country is to degrade men ; to debauch voters ; 
to stuff ballot-boxes ; to elect bad men to office, and, in 
every way, to tear down and ruin American institu- 
tions ; consequently it is a question in this country 
whether the American system of government shall live, 
or whether this curse shall destroy it. 

Now, as to the remedies. One man asks, " Has the 
Government the right to destroy this business ? " A 
friend interrupted me once to say : " I have a natural 
right to sell liquor." 

" What do you mean by a natural right ? " 

He did not answer. 

" I suppose you mean, if you mean anything, that 
in a state of nature you had a right to sell it ; that is, 
when you were a wild man you had a right to do so. 
And to whom would you sell whiskey in a state of 
nature ? You cannot sell whiskey unless you have 
somebody to sell to, and that would be a state of 
association. You could not trade unless men come 
together to trade, and that would be the formation of 
society. All trade is the child of society. If trade is 
the child of society, society has the same right as any 
parent. If trade will not behave itself, society may 
take it across its knee. If that will not do, it may do 
more." 

Suppose a man comes here with a club to kill me ; 
probably under the laws of this State I would be com- 
pelled to retire as far as I could with safety, but when 
the issue is between his life and mine he must die, 
because every man has the right to defend himself. I 
am a man, I have a right to be a man. I exist, I have 
a right to exist, and the right to exist takes with it the 
right to defend that existence. This is the foundation 
of social and political ethics. 



60 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

A story is told of a muscular preacher who believed 
in using all the powers the Lord had given him, fists 
as well as tongue. Some of his flock thought he was 
too much inclined to use his fists, so they sent him 
this text : " If a man smite thee on thy right cheek, 
turn to him the other also. ,, They thought they 
would puzzle the old man to harmonize the text with 
his conduct. He said he would preach from it the 
next Sabbath ; and on that day he opened with the usual 
services, took his text, and went ahead. He went on 
to say that the Bible was distinguished from all other 
books by appealing to the God-man and not to the 
brute-man, by teaching man to use reason and judg- 
ment, not passion or lust. " If a man should strike you 
on the right cheek he might do it through mistake, or 
might do it through a feeling of mischief, and if you 
turned on him without asking any questions and struck 
back, that would be acting like a brute. You should 
use your reason and judgment ; be certain before you 
act. You should turn the other cheek. If he strike 
vou on that, you know that he means it ; then go for 
him." 

That may not be very good Bible interpretation, 
but it is a very good interpretation of the law of this 
country. 

The right that is inherent in every individual, self- 
defence, is the safety of the State, of which the individual 
forms a part. The Government has a right to defend 
its own life, and we have seen in this country to what 
extent it may defend it. You remember, and so do 
1, when more troops were necessary and a conscrip- 
tion act was passed to draft men into the army, how 
many men fled to Canada to avoid the result. Why was 
the draft ordered ? On this same principle, the right 
of the Republic to defend its own existence. That 
right is so sacred that the Government can take men 
from their homes, dress them in its army blue, put 
guns in their hands and place them on battle-fields to 
be shot to death to save its life. The right of the 
Government to defend its own life must remain as it 
is, or the Union is good for nothing. The Govern- 
ment has the right to destroy any business, any custom, 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 6l 

or any trade that tends to destroy the Republic by 
debauching the character of the citizens who compose 
its society. The highest courts of the nation have 
again and again affirmed this right and power. A 
government which has the right to take its free citi- 
zens from their homes against their will, and place 
them on a battle-field to save its life, certainly has the 
right to kill a vile drunkard-factory that is threatening 
its existence. 

The Government has the right, through its police 
power, to protect its own life. 

If there exists this right, the question is how to 
use it. As I have said, this Government is not like 
European dynasties. They do not recognize the 
fact that the civilization evolves, develops. This Gov- 
ernment does recognize that fact. I do not know when 
I have laughed as much as I did the other day, as I 
read a Democratic platform adopted in one of the 
States. The reason I laughed was because I was once 
a Democrat myself, and used to believe such foolish- 
ness. What they said was, " We are in favor of return- 
ing to the primitive government of our forefathers." 
That was their declaration. I laughed. You ask me 
why, and I tell you. Since the sunrise of creation's 
morning humanity has moved on, on — up the hill of 
progress. There have been eddies in the great tide of 
advance that have made it seem almost as though hu- 
manity was moving backward ; but I stand here unhes- 
itatingly to affirm that, as a whole, humanity has never 
retrograded. As society has advanced, government 
has advanced. First, the patriarchal form, then as the 
people progressed others were adopted. 

Fifty years ago, in the days of our forefathers, we did 
not need any legislation to look after railroads, be- 
cause then there were no railroads. As mankind went 
forward, inventive genius developed railroads. As soon 
as they were developed, the Government had to meet 
the railroad problem ; and to-day, in that question, this 
Republic has as mighty a problem of legislation to deal 
with as our forefathers ever had. 

Fifty years ago we did not need a government to 
look after the telegraph wires ; to-day w r e require it. 



62 . THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Ten years ago we did not need a government to look 
after telephones ; to-day it is necessary. 

Thirty years from this time our civilization will be 
far in advance of to-day. New social problems are 
constantly arising, and as these are forcing themselves 
to the front, the Government must meet and solve 
them, or die. 

In Europe they have never provided for this growth. 
There the governments are like iron bands. Take 
Russia to-day ; it is a despotism because the Em- 
pire has no provision for development. The people 
have developed until the Government holds them like 
bands. The people have tried to break one with the 
dagger, with the bomb, and by social revolution, but 
they have not succeeded. But as sure as God's people 
go up to the point He has ordained them to reach, 
just so sure that Government will go to pieces and let 
the people advance. There can be no doubt about it. 

In much of Europe the only avenue for mankind's 
advance is the pathway of bloodshed. Every advance 
made has been with the bayonet or the dagger. 

The men who laid the foundations of this Govern- 
ment did more wisely than that. They said, " This 
nation will grow." 

The prudent mother who has a little girl who is 
growing very rapidly, when she buys a dress of durable 
material, puts in tucks, so that when the child grows 
the dress can be let out to fit her. 

The wisest thing ever said by an American states- 
man was : " Unless we provide for the peaceable future 
development of the people, some day they will develop 
through bloodshed and assassination. The founders of 
the nation gave us a Constitution under which the 
people can develop without fighting and without 
revolution. In the Constitution of every State they 
put an adjustable line, providing that the people may, 
when they wish, amend their organic law and develop 
their government, without riot, without revolution, and 
without bloodshed." In other words, if there was a 
revolution, it should be a revolution by votes, not by 
bayonets. 

The temperance men say the remedy for this evil of 



WHY THE INDICTMENT IS PRESSED. 63 

intemperance is simply that the Government shall de- 
velop. For years, long years, in the State of Wiscon- 
sin they have gone, with tears in their eyes, to the Leg- 
islature of this State and said : " Grant us — the people, 
in a government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people — the right to rule ourselves. Give us the 
privilege of amending our organic law. Not YOUR or- 
ganic law, Mr. Legislator, but OUR law. Give us — the 
people — the right that belongs to us, to govern our- 
selves.' , They have gone up there in thousands, by 
their names, and have begged the party machines in 
this State to recognize one of the first principles of 
this Government, by submitting an amendment to the 
Constitution in accordance with the genius of Ameri- 
can institutions. But the liquor men have said, " If 
you submit it, the people will pass it. You must not 
submit it ; if you do, we will beat your party." And 
the party men, whipped. down by the liquor-sellers, said 
it would not do to submit it. 

You say Russia is a despotism. Why? Because 
the Czar says, " You shall not make a constitution for 
yourselves." In Wisconsin the party machine sits on 
the neck of the people and says, " You shall not make 
a constitution for yourselves." Can you tell me the 
difference between the despotism of the Czar and a des- 
potism of political demagogues? 

You say in Wisconsin you have a government of the 
people and for the people, and you know that for years 
and years the statement has been made a lie by the po- 
litical machines of this State. The people begged for 
the right to vote on a primary principle of government, 
but, because some men feared it would knock a cog off 
the wheel of the old party machine, they denied the 
right of the citizens to govern themselves. 

Thus, ladies and gentlemen, under the license system 
the liquor oligarchy has grown until it impudently de- 
fies law and seeks to overturn the very foundations of 
the Government. Its character as a political assassin is 
so well known that politicians ask — not, " What will the 
people do ? " but, " What do the liquor men want ? how 
will the dram-sellers regard our action ? " 

In view of all the facts, it seems to be the plain duty 



64 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

of every patriot and every citizen to rally to the de- 
fence of American liberties, and by crushing the grog- 
shop oligarchy, strengthen the foundations of our civil 
and political institutions. I have faith to believe that 
the jury of America's voters will condemn the traffic, 
and that the Republic will execute the sentence. Then, 
indeed, may the patriot poet sing : 

" Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise, 
The queen of the world and the child of the skies ! 
Thy genius commands thee ; with rapture behold, 
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold. 
Thy reign is the last and the noblest of time, 
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime. 
Let the crimes of the East ne'er encrimson thy name; 
Be freedom , and science ', and virtue, thy fame, 1 * 



IV. 

AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 

An Address delivered at Lewis' Opera-House, Des Moines, Iowa, 

April 22, 1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I have come to your 
State, by request of the Grand Lodge of Good Tem- 
plars, to discuss the necessity, feasibility, and practica- 
bility of the outlawry or inhibition of the alcoholic 
liquor traffic. This traffic having been indicted by the 
legislative grand jury, is now in the court, to be tried 
by the grandest jury of a republic — the people.* Your 
legislators have indicted the alcoholic liquor traffic for 
social crime ; the case is in your hands to investigate, 
consider, and determine. The law-making power being 
the one to pass on the question, the issue involved is 
not one of law, but of fact. I enter this investigation 
with misgivings in regard to my own abilities to ma- 
terially assist you. I come as an assistant, not as a 
teacher, and hope if I do anything, I may assist you 
to reach a just, righteous verdict. In view of the great 
interests involved, I would not, as an American citizen, 
dare to mislead you, but deem it my duty to counsel the 
fullest, fairest, and most complete investigation of all 
the facts in this case. 

The advocates who are defending the criminal have, 
and probably will continue to exhaust every quibble 
before they will go to trial on the real issue. A cele- 
brated lawyer once said to a graduating class, "If you 
have a client who is guilty, and who has no defence, 
never let him be tried. " " How will you prevent it?" 
asked one of the students. " If they force you into 

* The Legislature the previous winter had submitted a prohibitory 
amendment to the State Constitution. The amendment was to be 
voted on at a special election the following June. 

5 (65) 



66 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

court, try the opposing attorney, try the witnesses, try 
the judge, and if nothing else will win, try the jury, 
but never try your client. " This advice has been and 
will be adopted by the defence, and it may be best for 
us at the commencement of this investigation to deter- 
mine by whom and how the case is to be tried, and 
what issues are, and what are not involved in the 
case. 

This question is to be tried by you voters, not as 
Germans, Irishmen, Englishmen, Scotchmen, New 
Yorkers, or Illinoisans, but as citizen voters of Iowa, 
bound by your honor as voters to do what in your 
honest judgment is best for the State. It is to be 
deprecated that the advocates defending the liquor 
traffic have thought it necessary to appeal to class, 
clan, and national prejudices, thereby disintegrating 
society for selfish ends. Although such demagoguery 
will not influence sensible men, it shows how utterly 
reckless and unscrupulous are the advocates on the 
other side. 

See what interests they jeopardize to secure an ac- 
quittal. A republic must be homogeneous if it hopes 
to live and prosper. An individual cannot take into 
his stomach pine-knots, sticks, stones, tacks, and nails, 
allow them to remain there unassimilated and un- 
digested, and live ; so Iowa cannot take into her politr 
ical organism New Yorkers, Illinoisans, Germans, Irish- 
men, and persons from other nations and States, allow 
them to remain in the political organism banded to- 
gether as clans and nationalities, unassimilated and 
undigested, and politically or socially prosper. Any- 
thing that prevents the ^assimilation or digestion of 
food in the physical organism is an enemy of the body. 
Any man or class of men who try to induce Germans 
to band together in this country as Germans, or Irish- 
men as Irishmen, is a traitor to the Government and its 
liberties. All such work and talk is unrepublican, 
undemocratic, and un-American, as well as an insult to 
the nationality thus sought to be used as tools. 

The term " German vote," which, during the last few 
years, has become a power in certain political circles, 
originated in this vile demagoguery. All voters in 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 6? 

this country are Americans, native and foreign born. 
No man has a right to vote in Iowa as a New Yorker 
or a German. If he votes, it is as a citizen of Iowa. 
Any man who does not love this country more than any 
other had better emigrate. American know-nothing- 
ism was a curse to this nation, because it acted as 
a disintegrating force on society. German know- 
nothingism, as now developed by tricksters and liquor- 
sellers, is of the same class of political heresies. If it 
continue it will undoubtedly develop American know- 
nothingism as its antidote, when the Germans who 
have been led into this movement will be the ones to 
suffer, as five American votes will count more than one 
German vote. But it is to be hoped that this accursed 
political trickery may die before such a remedy will 
be necessary. No greater insult could be offered to the 
German-American voters of Iowa than to insinuate 
that they are controlled by their stomachs instead of 
their brains, and that with a swill-pail full of beer they 
can be led up to the polls and voted either way. The 
grass on Southern battle-fields, growing green over the 
graves of noble Americans born in Germany, who died 
for this country, hurls the lie in the teeth of the men 
who claim that Germans are controlled by appetite and 
by liquor demagogues, not by principle. 

These men who appeal to German ideas, theories, 
and practices, do so to subserve selfish interests, and I 
submit that such practices are enough to cast doubt on 
the merit of their defence. Anything that excites 
race-feeling instead of intelligence, appetite instead of 
reason, passion instead of conscience, self-interest in- 
stead of duty, should be shut out of a case involving 
grave questions of the functions and duties of govern- 
ment. 

The voters should investigate the arguments and 
facts brought forward by both sides, and on these, and 
these alone, as explained by their own experience 
and observation, render their verdict. 

Among the issues not involved in this case at present 
is that of political partisanship. I stand before you 
to-night a Democrat, with my reason and intelligence 
endorsing the principles of American democracy. Not 



68 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

as it is represented in some of the State platforms writ- 
ten by political tricksters to catch traitors ; I have 
no sympathy with this gerrymandering of political 
platforms to catch soreheads from other parties, believ- 
ing, as I do, that a man who leaves his own party for 
spite and votes with another party for revenge is an 
unsafe and unreliable man, and not worth purchasing 
at such a price — but believing in the principles as laid 
down when the party passed seven prohibitory laws in 
as many different States. 

My friend Senator Kimball is a tried, true Repub- 
lican. On the conclusions to be deduced from certain 
political data we differ broadly, but on this issue we 
agree. Love of home, country, civilization, and liberty 
are as equally dear to the Democratic as to the Re- 
publican father, and if these mutual interests are 
endangered by the liquor traffic, partisanship is for- 
gotten in the struggle with the common enemy. " For 
home and native land " is the war-cry that makes us 
brothers. 

Neither is the issue of the use, nor, abstinence from 
the use of alcoholic liquors involved in this campaign. 
The prohibitory constitutional amendment no more 
prohibits the USE of intoxicating liquors than section 
4035 of the statutes of Iowa prohibits the USE of 
adulterated foods. That section reads.: "If any person 
knowingly sell any kind of diseased or corrupted or un- 
wholesome provisions, whether for meat or drink, with- 
out making the same fully known to the buyer, he shall 
be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more 
than thirty days, or by a fine not exceeding one hundred 
dollars." 

The section does not prohibit the use. If you want 
to eat diseased meat you injure yourself and, indirectly, 
society ; but if you sell the meat, the sale is a social 
act, you injure another, and society interferes to pro- 
tect its units from imposition and injury, This section 
deals with the traffic, not with the use. Trade being a 
social institution, society has a right to destroy it if its 
effects are deleterious. Use is an individual matter 
over which society has no control as long as the indi- 
vidual does not injure it by the practice. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 69 

Section 4041 of Iowa statutes reads : "If any person 
throw, or cause to be thrown, any dead animal into any 
river, well, spring, cistern, reservoir, stream, or pond, he 
shall be punished, by imprisonment in the county jail not 
less than ten nor more than thirty days, or by fine not less 
than five nor more than one hundred dollars." 

This deals with the public act of poisoning the water, 
not with the individual use of the poisoned water. It 
does not say you shall not drink, but it says you shall 
not poison the water. The one act directly affects so- 
ciety, the other affects the individual, and indirectly 
disturbs society, and the former is prohibited. 

Society will never undertake to say that an individ- 
ual shall not read obscene literature, but it does say in- 
dividuals shall not print and circulate such literature, 
to corrupt the elements of which society is composed, 
thereby endangering its life, prosperity, usefulness, and 
peace. Self-preservation is the first law of life, with 
States as well as individuals. Trade, traffic, business 
depends largely upon society — the State — for its ex- 
istence: Anything that affects deleteriously the health, 
morality, order, or safety of the public by its presence 
or conduct, the State must destroy as far as in its pow- 
er, to preserve its own life. The State must guard 
against those social diseases that tend to break down 
its system, or it will die. The thing which every trade 
and traffic must show is that it strengthens and builds 
up the health of society. If it fails to show this ; if it 
generates disease in the political system ; if it acts as 
an ulcer on the body politic, society — the State — must, 
to maintain its own existence, destroy as best it can ; 
and no rights are violated thereby, the traffic having 
forfeited all right to demand legal protection, by its in- 
direct attacks on the life, prosperity, and order of the 
State. 

The friends of the amendment, recognizing the fact 
that society is made up of individuals, and that the 
health and character of the unit of society, the indi- 
vidual, affects to a very large degree the health, pros- 
perity, and usefulness of the political system, believe 
it to be for the best interest, and, in short, the duty of so- 
ciety, to make everything as favorable as possible for the 



yo THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

development of those traits and characteristics of the 
race which tend to build up and strengthen its power 
for good, and to destroy as far as possible all institu- 
tions, customs, and practices which tend to develop 
those viler characteristics of the race, which endanger 
its life, and weaken its power to bless the people. In 
short, they believe with the great English statesman 
that it is the duty of Government to make it as easy as 
possible for the individual to do right, and as difficult 
as possible for him to do wrong. 

The anti-amendment advocates claim, on the con- 
trary, that it is the duty of society to take into its 
system those institutions which generate corruption 
and disease of the elements of its own life, in order to 
test what elements can stand the strain and be stronger 
by it. In other words, that an individual had better 
take corruption or poison, in order to generate a fever 
to purify his system. Would not the learned materia- 
medicist say, " It is better never to poison the system 
and subject its elements to such a test " ? 

The issue in this campaign is not a question of total 
abstinence. In Nebraska there are thousands of total 
abstainers who are prohibitionists. There are also 
hundreds of prohibitionists who are drinkers. 

The ex-chief justice of my own State, one of the 
ablest criminal lawyers on this continent — learned, log- 
ical, and eloquent — whose hatred for the dram-shop 
is so intense he can hardly find language to express 
it, is a man who used to drink wine, and I think he 
does yet. When you talk to him in regard to total 
abstinence, he says, " That is an individual matter." 
When you talk to him in regard to the American dram- 
shop, he says, " It is a social nuisance that must be 
suppressed." 

The man who drinks liquor may love his home ; the 
man who uses liquor may love his wife ; the man who 
uses liquor may love his child ; and the man who ab- 
stains may do the same thing. In this campaign, and 
on this issue of home and family, they are one ; and if 
the liquor traffic is proved to be the enemy of home 
and family, there is no reason why the drinker should 
not stand with the abstainer in favor of this amendment. 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. ?I 

This question of the prohibition of the alcoholic 
liquor traffic is in no sense a question of individual ab- 
stinence any more than the prohibition of the sale of 
rotten beef is a question of the prohibition of eating it, 
or the prohibition of the sale of bad milk a question of 
drinking it. The one implies the protection extended 
by a State to society as a whole, the other implies the 
individual action based on a man's judgment. 

It may be best for us to look for a moment at this 
proposition, because the opposition will almost surely 
endeavor to drag these two -distinct lines of work to- 
gether, and endeavor to whip out of the prohibition 
ranks all men who drink alcoholic liquors. On the 
principles underlying the temperance reform in this 
country all men are agreed. 

There has hardly been a session of the Brewers' Con- 
gress or the Distillers' Union in the last twenty years 
that has not resolved against the evils of intemperance. 
On the primary proposition that these exist all classes 
agree. The only question is the question of remedy. 

The theory of the prohibitionist is that it is the duty 
of the State to make it as easy as possible to do 
right, and just as difficult to do wrong ; that it is the 
duty of the State to make the road up to manhood and 
honor as smooth as possible ; to plant along the side 
of the road .the flowers of hope, of promise, and of 
public approbation. Into the road down to licentious- 
ness, and vice, and crime, and infamy, and death, roll 
the rocks of law, hedge it with the brambles of public 
opinion, the* briars of public condemnation, and then 
place the citizen at the beginning of the two ways and 
say to him, " Take your choice." The State can never 
enter there and say you must go this way and shall not 
go the other. It will simply make the road to man- 
hood pleasant and the road to disgrace disagreeable, 
and allow the young man standing at the entrance of 
the two paths to choose along which he will journey. 
He can go to Heaven if he will, or he can go down to 
ruin if he will. In the way of his free moral agency 
the State can never come, until by his individual action 
he injures others. At this starting-point the moral 
suasion organizations come, to persuade, to convince 



72 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

that it is best for him to go the better way. The State 
simply steps in to prevent temptation, leaving the free 
will of the individual untrammeled, while the work of 
the moral suasion society is to show the individual 
what is right and what is wrong. 

Take another view : Intemperance, as it is known 
to the people of this State, is known to the scientific 
world as alcoholism, or dipsomania. Better known to 
the American physician, the English physician, the 
French physician than any other form of chronic 
poisoning. The prohibitionist says : " The same rules 
of common-sense should be applied in the treatment of 
this disease that are applied in the treatment of other 
diseases/' The only cure for the man who has the 
small-pox — you know something of this disease from 
the terrible scare which swept over, the country last 
winter — is the treatment of kindness, nursing, and doc- 
toring. It does no good to pound a man on the head 
with a club who has the small-pox. It would do him no 
good to put him in the " cooler," or to set him at work 
breaking stone. The only way to treat a sick man is 
to treat him with care and scientific treatment. The 
people use common-sense rules for treatment of small- 
pox — treatment for the sick, vaccination for the well, 
quarantine for the disease. In the temperance move- 
ment the temperance societies adopt the same methods. 
The pledge is vaccination. If it does not take the first 
time they vaccinate over again, and keep on vaccinating 
until it works. Last spring, when it was reported 
that small-pox was spreading from every part of the 
country, there was heard a universal demand for the 
interference of Government, not with the idea that its 
interposition could cure those men who were sick, but 
with the idea that the hand of Government through 
that agency known as the police power of the State, 
could keep the disease within certain limits and protect 
those who were well. 

The State of Iowa has adopted this theory. 

Section 4039 of your statutes reads : 

"If any person inoculate himself or any other per- 
son or suffer himself to be inoculated with small-pox 
within this State with intent to cause the spread of the 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 73 

disease or come within this State with the intent to 
cause the prevalence or spread, etc., he shall be im- 
prisoned and fined." 

The State does not say people shall not catch the 
small-pox, but the State will make it as difficult to 
catch it as possible. The love, care, and kindness 
shown to the patients sick with contagious disease is 
moral suasion ; the red flag out in front of the house, 
the strong hand of quarantine, is prohibition. This 
prohibition is of the State. If this system is sensible 
with other diseases, the same system should be applied 
to this wide-spread disease of intemperance. 

Yellow fever swept up the Mississippi and located 
at Memphis. The second year, within twenty-four 
hours after the time it appeared in Memphis, every 
place which had communication with that city had 
quarantined against it ; they stopped the passage of 
merchandise, and even stopped the passage of United 
States mails from the city until disinfected. Why did 
they do this ? They could not legislate the poor fel- 
lows who had the yellow fever back to health, but they 
could legislate them into a quarantine to prevent other 
people from catching it. 

Twenty-one thousand three hundred and eighty-four 
people in this country died from yellow fever in the 
last ten years. Take that number, think of it — 21,384 ! 
Does any man say it was wrong to quarantine Mem- 
phis, though it destroyed merchandise, though it 
destroyed business, though it wrecked the whole city ? 
No ; it was right ! The disease of alcoholism, during 
the same time, has killed more than 650,000 American 
citizens. This is not the statement of a temperance 
lecturer — it is the statement of Willard Parker, the 
first surgeon of this country. It is the statement of 
N. S. Davis, the celebrated physician of Chicago, and 
it is the statement of every doctor in this country who 
is tall enough in his profession to be seen over three 
counties. And yet the drunkard-makers object to 
quarantine. Alcoholism has killed 650,000, and there 
are men in this audience, I presume, with these facts 
before them, who have been so mistaken that they 
have voted to license a man to take the seeds of this 



74 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

terrible disease in his hands and sow them among the 
boys and girls of this country. Yellow fever has 
ruined less men, less women, and less children in 
Memphis than alcoholism has in the State of Iowa. 
The one is prohibited, the other licensed. 

While the churches and the moral suasion organiza- 
tions go down to the gutter after the poor drunkard, 
while they endeavor to cure his sick body by scientific 
treatment, and his sick soul by the grace of God, it is 
the duty of the State to do away with the places, to 
destroy the trade which incessantly turns out these 
sick men and keeps the supply constant, and forces this 
work through the years and on through the ages. 

The question in regard to State action is not the 
question of what the treatment of the individual shall: 
be. It is simply the question of what is the duty of the 
State, what is the power of the State, to restrain, or to 
prevent the spread of this fearfully contagious disease., 

The question before the people of Iowa during the 
next sixty days is not : " Are you a Democrat ? Are you 
a Republican? Are you a Presbyterian? Are you a 
drinker or an abstainer? What is your individual con- 
victions in regard to the use of liquors ?" but, " What 
is the effect of the American dram-shop on the best 
interests of the State ? " This is the sole issue in this 
campaign. Everything else is subterfuge, — is thrown 
in to deceive, and every person who endeavors to pre- 
vent the people from considering this primary question 
is working in the interests of the liquor men. 

I was through the canvass in Kansas. The same 
issue was presented there, and from the beginning to 
the end of the fight, I never heard the liquor men meet 
the issue squarely and fairly on its merits. 

The whole question to be tried is simply, What is 
the relation of the liquor traffic to society in this State ? 
That much and no more. I am well aware that when 
you have reached this point, when you have arraigned 
the liquor interest on its record, and insist it shall 
come into court and plead to the indictment, that it 
will at once move to quash the indictment on certain 
specious sophistries. One will be this : that this bus- 
iness is an old institution ; that the State is composed 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 75 

of people who have come from different countries and 
different nationalities ; that the German having come 
from his Fatherland has the right to bring here its 
customs; that the Irishman coming from the Ever- 
green Isle has the right to bring the customs of that 
country here. 

Let us look at this position for a moment, the posi- 
tion that is everywhere held and urged by the liquor 
men of this country. Let us examine whether this 
idea is in harmony with the primary principles of 
government. 

Political institutions are the outgrowth of social 
customs, not social customs the outgrowth of political 
institutions. Society is built from the bottom, not 
from the top. The home comes first ; then families 
assemble and you have a village ; villages and you 
have a township ; townships and you have a county ; 
counties and you have a State ; and, in this country, 
States and you have a nation. All political customs 
grow out of social life. The political customs of 
this country are the legitimate children of the social 
customs and life of the founders of the Government, of 
the men who made our liberties and our institutions 
possible. 

If I ever get indignant in my life, it is when I hear 
men born in other countries, together with dirty, dough- 
faced American demagogues, sneering at the Pilgrims, 
and ridiculing Puritanical morals and ideas. No man 
has greater respect for the good traits of our foreign- 
born citizens than myself, but I believe that a native- 
born American is as good as a foreign-born American, 
as long as his life and his conduct are as good ; and I 
most earnestly protest, in free America, against the beer 
smut-mill being turned on the men who planted our 
liberties, and suffered and died to perpetuate them. A 
few American sneaks, in order to catch the beer vote, 
enter the cemetery where America's noblest dead are 
buried, desecrate the graves, and attempt to defile the 
memory of those who built the Government and estab- 
lished the liberties under which these ghouls live. Who 
were these Pilgrims who are now made a by-word and 
jest by the beer-guzzlers of this country? What did 



?6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

they come to America for? What kind of a country 
did they find ? Britain's poetess answers : 

"The breaking waves dashed high 

On a stern and rock-bound coast, 
And the woods against a stormy sky 

Their giant branches tossed ; 
And the heavy night hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wild New England shore. 
Not as the conqueror comes, 

They, the true-hearted, came ; 
Not with the roll of the stirring drums, 

And the trumpet that sings of fame : 
Not as the flying come, 

In silence and in fear ; — 
They shook the depths of the desert gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 
Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard, and the sea ; 
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 

To the anthems of the free. 
The ocean eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared — 

This was their welcome home. 
There were men with hoary hair 

Amidst that Pilgrim-band : 
Why had they come to wither there, 

Away from their childhood's land ? 
There was woman's fearless eye, 

Lit by her deep love's truth ; 
There was manhood's brow serenely high, 

And the fiery heart of youth. 
What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine ? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — 

They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 
Ay, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod ; 
They have left unstained what there they found, — 

Freedom to worship God." 

Such was their coming, and such the motives which 
led them to leave the Old World and its comforts for 
the unknown New. By struggle and toil, through dis- 
ease and suffering, they developed the land and planted 
the ideas of liberty in their descendants. Their theories 
of liberty and morals were developed by their children. 

Who died at Lexington? Whose blood wet the 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. TJ 

ground at Bunker Hill? Whose breast \\ras in front of 
British bullets at Brandyvvine and Germantown? Who 
starved at Valley Forge ? 

Through blood the land was made free. What was 
then done? Did Americans close the doors of the Re- 
public and say, " We are free ; let the world take care 
of itself " ? No! They welcomed the down-trodden of 
all nations. Immigrants have not been asked to come 
as alien paupers. They have been received as brothers, 
and made members of the family. After all this, for 
these refugees from the despotisms of Europe to at- 
tempt to destroy American customs by traducing Amer- 
ican dead is disgraceful. If they came here to be 
Americans, they are welcome ; but if they prefer Euro- 
pean ideas and customs, and the governments which 
those ideas and customs have produced, a ticket from 
New York to Europe will cost little more than a ticket 
from* Europe to New York, and they are free to go. 
Americans are satisfied with American institutions and 
American liberties. 

This Government is the child of that morality, that 
theory of religious liberty, that theory of governmental 
life which was taught by the men who settled and 
developed the Colonies ; while, on the contrary, the 
German despotism of to-day is the legitimate child 
of the German social life and German social customs. 
Whenever the people in this country destroy American 
social customs and American social life ; whenever the 
people drift away from the rocks on which their fore- 
fathers founded this Government, into the seas where 
despotisms have floated ; whenever American customs 
cease and the customs of despotic Europe take their 
place, this Government had better order its grave- 
clothes, and invite in the mourners. America, as a re- 
public, can only live while the customs that made it a 
republic live. This theory of government can only con- 
tinue while the social life that developed it continues. 
When a different form of social life, a different form of 
social thought, a different form of social teaching, a dif- 
ferent form of moral training come in, I have no hope 
for the Government. 

Suppose 1 could to-night take a hundred thousand 



78 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

native-born Americans, and, with a motion of the hand, 
plant them over in the German Empire, would not Von 
Bismarck have a lively time governing them? Why? 
Because their training in their mothers' arms, their 
training in the cradle, their training in the primary 
school, in the graded school, in the academy, in the 
university, have all developed a different line of thought, 
a different theory of government, a different theory of 
responsibility, from that developed by the German 
social life, the German social customs, and the German 
schools. The idea that because customs have lived in 
another country, and have been developed in another 
form of government, that they must of right be allowed 
to continue here, is utterly fallacious. 

Suppose before the missionaries went to the Fiji 
Islands, a man from that island had drifted over and 
located in the city of Des Moines. (You know that 
the Fiji Islanders were cannibals.) Suppose this Fiji 
Islander had come. Now, he is a different man from 
the American. His teeth are different, his head is 
especially different. He has different passions, differ- 
ent appetities, different ideas. For a time he restrains 
his inclinations, but at last, the old appetite in him 
being aroused, he makes a raid on your home, catches 
your fat baby boy, kills him, dresses him, cooks him, 
and puts him on the table for a meal. You get your 
shotgun and go up to interview him. Don't kill him 
on sight. When you see what he is about, you say : 
" What have you done ? " 

" Why," he says, " nothing, only killed a boy." 

11 But you have committed murder." 

He says, " I do not understand." 

" Why, you have killed this child. You had no right 
to kill him. You have no right to do what you are 
doing." 

" I thought this was a free country ! " he exclaims. 

" It is a free country, but it is not a free country to 
commit murder in." 

" But,i" he says, " I used to eat babies over in the Fiji 
Islands. Have not I got the right to eat them here?" 

What would be the answer? "Sir, the Government 
of the United States is not the Government of the 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. *jg 

Fiji Islands. Your social customs have developed 
your form of government, our social customs have 
developed our form of government. When you leave 
that Government you must leave every custom that is 
inimical to this Government or destructive to its in- 
stitutions, for we have no desire to have introduced 
here the customs that propagated the governments of 
your native island." 

Suppose the ex-Khedive of Egypt, when he was 
deposed, instead of moving to Italy, had come over 
here with his wives and children and gone to house- 
keeping in Des Moines. An officer takes him by the 
shoulder, and says, "Hold on, sir! What are you 
doing?" 

" I am keeping house." 

" You are my prisoner." 

" What for ? " 

" Bigamy." 

" What is bigamy ? " 

" Having more than one wife." 

" I thought this was a free country ! " 

" It is." 

" I used to have these wives in Egypt. Have not I 
the right to have them here ? " 

What would you say to him ? " Sir, this Republic 
is a different Government from the Despotism of 
Egypt. This Government is a product of our social 
institutions. Consequently, when you come to this 
country you must leave every custom that would be 
injurious to the welfare of this country and the perpe- 
tuity of this Government." The idea that American 
freedom means universal license is the dangerous idea 
in this country. 

In my State a young woman recently from Europe 
was brought into a court charged with the murder of 
her infant child. When the indictment was read, and 
she was asked, through an interpreter, to plead, her 
answer was : " I thought this was a free country." 

The idea that this country has no form, no customs, 
no laws, no institutions, which immigrants are bound 
to respect ; that men have the right to come here and 
follow any customs, any ideas, any theories, and any 



So THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

practices, is an idea utterly antagonistic to American 
institutions, and if carried out will ultimately build on 
the chaos of our liberties the worst despotism that the 
world ever saw. 

At the birth of this Government, the institutions of 
the Colonies were the institutions of a monarchy in a 
modified form. The men who settled at Plymouth 
Rock were men who had given up, in a measure, their 
old ideas and theories, and a new social system had 
been slowly developing. This change ultimately de- 
veloped a social life that would not endure even the 
limited monarchy of Great Britain. When the United 
States came into existence as a nation, they were a 
long way from having republican institutions. The 
American leaders were not destructionists, they were 
reformers. 

The difference between the French and American 
Revolutions was this — the Americans simply wished to 
team down the building of a monarchy, to take out of 
it all the material they could use in another form of 
government, while the French endeavored to destroy 
and build wholly new. 

The work of American statesmen for the first hun- 
dred years of this Republic has been the work of 
changing, adjusting, and trying. Look ! see what 
changes have been made. Examine the law; you 
could hardly recognize it as ~the child of the law in 
existence when the Colonies became free. The old 
theory was that the king received his authority from 
God, that he stood in the relation of God to the 
people ; with the destruction of that idea, the indi- 
vidual became the sovereign, and the ruler the repre- 
sentative of the people. The result of this was a 
change in the law in accordance with the change in 
ideas. The old theory of the divine right of kings 
to rule the people developed the theory of the divine 
right' of the husband to rule the wife. The old mar- 
riage forms — every one of them — contained a clause 
stipulating that the wife should obey the husband. 
If I had been young at that time, and one of the 
ladies here had also been living, worth fifty thousand 
dollars in bonds, notes, and real estate, and married 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES. 8 1 

me, by the act of marriage (unless her property had 
been entailed upon her and her children) every dollar 
would have become mine. I could have spent it or 
gambled it away, and she could not have prevented 
me by other means than love or the broomstick. The 
old law has been changed, and shaped, and polished 
until to-day, in my State, if I wanted my v/ife's 
money, the only way I could get it would be to per- 
suade her to give it to me. She can buy and sell 
property, and transact business in her own name ; and 
next November many of Nebraska's voters will say 
that the women of the State have the same right to a 
voice in the Government under which they live that 
the men have. This is the legitimate result of a change 
of customs from a monarchy to the broader idea of a 
democracy, founded upon the morality and intelligence 
of the people. 

The founders of the Republic recognized the fact 
that the foundation of universal liberty must be uni- 
versal education. At the birth of this Government 
the schools of America were private schools, but the 
necessity of making the citizen-sovereign intelligent, 
developed our free-school system. All the institutions 
that America inherited have been moulded, shaped, 
and developed. Among these inherited institutions 
was the accursed drinking-place. The dram-shop is 
not a child of American customs, liberty, ideas, schools, 
or theories. It was inherited from the despotic gov- 
ernments of Europe. At the laying of the foundation 
of the Government there were men who openly denied 
that it should continue to be in the new structure. 

Those who favored a compromise were in a majority. 
They said : " It will not be fair to reject the liquor traffic 
until it has been tried in the new form of government. " 
They prevailed and it has been tried. 

Its results have been the same as in Europe — drunk- 
enness, debauchery, vice, crime, riot, communism. In 
the rich soil and genial climate of our Government it 
bore fruit early, and in 1676 the Government of Vir- 
ginia found it necessary to protect the people from the 
multitude of evils resultant from the traffic and the 
conditions favorable to its development. As increas- 
6 



82 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

ing population, seconded by wise statesmanship, has 
enlarged the nation's borders, it has grown with our 
growth and increased with our strength ; it has been 
crippled only where persistent prohibitory efforts have 
made the conditions for its development unfavorable. 
The evil has long been admitted by all, and a per- 
sistent effort to remedy it has been made by a few. 
Compromise has followed compromise, the unrestrained 
sale, license, high license, civil damage, local option ; 
and I wish to assert in the light of history that all 
these compromises have been failures to just the ex- 
tent that principle has been sacrificed ; and successes 
just to the extent that right has been recognized, and 
prohibitory features incorporated into their text. 
Thus this institution has been tested and found un- 
worthy of a place in a free republic. It is an enemy 
of American liberties, and must be destroyed. Then : 

" There shall be sung another golden age : 

The rise of empire and of arts, 
The good and great inspiring epic rage, 

The wisest heads and noblest hearts — 
Not such as Europe brefds in her decay, 

Such as she bred when fresh and young, 
When heavenly flame did animate her clay, 

By future poets shall be sung. 
Westward the course of Empire takes its way, 

The first four acts already past, 
The fifth shall close the drama with the day : 

Time's noblest offspring is the last." 



V. 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND 
DEFENCE. 

An Address delivered at Moore's Opera-House, Des Moines, Iowa, 

April 23, 1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen of Des Moines : I came 
to your State at the request of the old prohibition corps 
of the temperance army, the Good Templars, who have 
fought on this line since 1851, to discuss with you the 
question of what is the best thing for the people to do 
with the alcoholic liquor traffic of your State. Your 
Legislature has submitted this question to you. I 
would have preferred that the question could have been 
submitted to every one who suffers from the accursed 
influence and effects of the drink traffic, or whose heart 
is bleeding from its direful effects ; but the provisions 
of our American Constitution are such that men above 
the age of twenty-one years must settle this question, 
while the great class who suffer most from the evil in- 
fluences of the liquor traffic — the women of the country 
— are debarred from expressing their opinion in making 
the final verdict. I would that this were not so ; but 
as it is submitted to the voters of this Commonwealth, 
you, as voters, must settle the question. The day has 
passed when a man can afford to laugh, to sneer, or to 
jeer at this question. As citizens of the State, bound by 
the highest obligations of a Christian civilization — 
home and love of country — you are to take the ques- 
tion without passion, without prejudice, without bit- 
terness, and fully consider it in all its phases. This 
question is one that must be settled calmly and dis- 
passionately. The drunkard-factory of this State must 
be weighed in the balance of political economy, of social 
life. It must be weighed, not by prejudiced men, not 

(83) 



84 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

by bitter men, not by unfair men, but by jurors willing 
to consider each of the counts in the indictment against 
it, and then to render their verdict according to the 
facts. 

To-night let us examine the relations of the liquor 
traffic in this country to society and its interests ; then, 
as you go from this hall, weigh the evidence, and if 
your judgment tells you it is conclusive against the 
traffic, if your judgment tells you my statements are 
correct, act upon them. If your judgment tells you 
my reasoning is incorrect, reject it. I would not think 
much of you if you would accept something as true, 
because I said it was true. I would not think much of 
you if you would reject what I said, simply because a 
temperance man said it. You are moral, responsible, 
intelligent, cultured men, and you must take the state- 
ments and weigh them in the scales of your own judg- 
ment, your own experience, your own intelligence, and 
then make up your minds whether they are true or false. 
The power of the liquor traffic to do great good or great 
evil to the Commonwealth cannot be doubted. The 
immense number of thdse retail shops, the large number 
of men engaged in the business of selling liquor, the 
great capital invested in the manufacture and in the 
buildings where liquor is sold, make the business capa- 
ble of doing great good or great evil to any city, county, 
state, or nation where it is permitted to exist. 

That this capacity is always exercised in the direction 
of evil is scarcely deniable. No man dares dispute the 
pernicious influence of the grog-shops of this country. 

A few weeks ago the Chicago Inter-Ocean described 
a certain section in the city of Chicago, which is called 
" the Black Hole." Many of you saw the description. 
It declared that in that section of the city the vicious 
elements upholding vice and crime, licentiousness, 
debauchery, and lewdness were the governing factors 
and the controlling interests. A few days later the 
same newspaper published a diagram of the streets of 
the city where the " Black Hole " was located. Sup- 
pose that to-night I should draw on this curtain the 
same diagram. Suppose, further, that you had not seen 
the Inter-Ocean article, After I have drawn this dia- 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENlF. 85 

gram I take the Inter-Ocean in my hands, and, standing 
before you, I read the description of the locality, 
studiously omitting the names of the places, the kind 
of business carried on there, and only speaking of the 
moral and social condition of the people. After I have 
read the description, my license friend, if you are in the 
house, I want you to tell me what kind of institutions 
are located along those streets ; what institutions will 
produce such a condition of things. 

Suppose I told you that on the first corner is a 
Methodist church, then from there down to the next 
corner it was blocked solidly with dry-goods houses. 
At the end of the street the Presbyterian church is 
located, and across the other side are retail houses. 
Then there is a Baptist church, and on the other side 
are manufactories — in other words, I tell you that that 
section of the city is filled with churches, with schools, 
and with business places. My license friend, would not 
you say my statement could not be true? Is it possible 
for such a state of things to exist where any respectable 
business exists? Then let me ask you to tell me what 
kind of business you think is transacted along these 
streets? Why, you would answer in a minute, if you 
were honest, " Grog-shops and their children, gambling 
hells and houses of ill-fame." The last two — the chil- 
dren of the first — infest the streets. That is the kind 
of institutions the Inter-Ocean says are there. 

A few years ago — the older men among the minis- 
ters here will remember — the metropolitan press of 
New York turned the public gaze upon a section of 
that city controlled by vice, crime, and immorality, 
and when the public looked at the streets where this 
horrible state of things existed, what did they see? 
Did they see churches, schools, and business to pro- 
duce these results ? No ! The centre of Five Points 
was an old brewery, and every street radiating from 
that brewery was crowded with grog-shops and their 
attendant institutions, where liquor was sold and hu- 
manity debased. When the Christian element of the 
city wished to elevate the social and moral condition 
of Five Points, the very first thing they did was to buy 
the old brewery and change it into a city mission. 



86 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

When Christianity came, the devil packed up his 
pet institution, to a certain extent, and moved over to 
Water Street, and then Water Street became the worst 
section of the city. The vicious element followed the 
dram-shop. 

Last September, one of the great newspapers of the 
city of Chicago arraigned Mayor Carter Harrison for 
not revoking the license of a certain liquor-dealer. 
The paper charged that this man had repeatedly 
violated the law, and insisted that the mayor should 
have revoked the license, and that his failure to act 
was his fear of injuring his political interests. Mayor 
Harrison, talking to a reporter, said that the accusa- 
tion of the paper, regarding the guilt of the liquor- 
seller and the failure to revoke the license, was true ; 
but he said he allowed that dram-shop to continue 
because it was a resort of thieves — it was a trap 
where the policemen could find criminals and catch 
them, and he allowed it to remain simply for this 
reason. Would he keep a church open as a trap for 
criminals ? I think not. 

I was born in the State of New York, where the 
farmers plough the land on three sides — top and two 
sides. One time, while a boy, an old gentleman in our 
neighborhood came to me and said, " See here ! Do 
you want to go and hunt foxes with me to-morrow ? " 
I said, " Yes." The next morning he came with the 
hounds. I had my gun ready, and we started out 
across the hills. We went up one hill, down on the 
other side, across the valley, up the second hill. About 
half-way up the hill we came across a fox-track in the 
snow. It was what we were looking for. The old 
hunter brought the dogs, put them on the track, and 
away they started, along the range to the north. I 
shouldered my gun and started after them. The old 
man said, " Where are you going? " " Going after the 
foxes." He said, with a laugh, " You follow me "; and 
he started across the hill to the southwest. The dogs 
had gone north ; he went southwest ; and I, without a 
word, followed him over the top of the hill and part of 
the way down the other side. He said, " You wait be- 
hind that stump." He went and sat down behind a 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 87 

tree. For a whole hour I sat there in the snow. The 
thought commenced to come into my mind that the 
old gentleman had brought me there to freeze. Just 
as this thought was taking definite shape, on the wings 
of the wind from the north was borne the baying of the 
hounds. They came nearer and nearer. The fox was 
shot in front. After the fox was shot the old hunter 
came up, and I asked, " How did you know the fox 
would come here ? " " Why," he answered, " this is his 
runaway. I have known over three hundred foxes 
killed on this range, and I never knew one to run on 
this side of the hill in any place but between this stump 
and that tree." 

Every hunter will tell you such is the habit of many 
kinds of game, and it is equally true of the criminals of 
this country. Suppose a man should break into a store 
here to-night, and leave for Chicago to-morrow — your 
police get a description of the man, and telegraph to 
the chief of police at Chicago to arrest him. Where 
would the Chicago police first search for him ? Would 
they go to the prayer-meeting ? Would they go to the 
stores ? No ! they would go to the grog-shops, or to 
the progeny of grog-shops — houses of ill-fame, gambling- 
hells — because this kind of game always seeks this run- 
away, its old familiar grounds. Take the records of 
the courts of this country, and they sustain this charge 
so thoroughly that no one will dare challenge it. And, 
gentlemen, before the license men of this State can 
hope to defeat the amendment, they must show that 
this charge is false. If the liquor traffic of this country 
stimulates crime, if it stimulates and produces vice, if 
it upholds it and sustains it, there is no argument that 
will justify a man in voting to continue the business. 

Again, the dram-shop of this country is a school of 
perjury. From the very day it is opened it makes 
liars of men. You may say this is a strong charge. 
Indict a liquor-seller in this town for violation of your 
liquor law. Your detectives tell you that he has per- 
sistently violated it. Bring him into court and put 
him on trial. Subpoena from their hauses in this city 
twenty-five men, young and old, who have patronized 
him. They come into court. You reach out the Bible ' 



88 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

they will swear, on God's Holy Word, to tell the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Try to 
prove by them facts which they know to be true. 
Nineteen out of the twenty-five will swear to a lie to 
defend the man who sold them the liquor. 

One of these witnesses is on the stand : 
. " Were you in that liquor-shop ? " 

u I was." 

" Did you buy something there? " 

" I did." 

" What was it ? " 

" I don't know." 

"What did you call for?" 

" I didn't call." 

" Well, what did you get?" 

" I don't know." 

" You drank something. What was it ? " 

" Well, it might have been tea, it might have been 
coffee, it might have been lemonade; I don't know." 

Lie? Of course he lies. 

Suppose he had gone into the saloon and asked for 
beer, and the bar-keeper had set up lemonade, would he 
not have known the difference? 

Suppose he had asked for whiskey, and the bar-tender 
had set up tea, would he not have known the differ- 
ence? 

And yet that man comes into court, and, after tak- 
ing his oath on God's Truth, deliberately and wilfully 
perjures his soul, degrades his manhood, dishonors his 
citizenship, to defend the man who will take his last 
dollar, make him a drunkard, and then kick him into 
the street and call him a drunken dead-beat ! Have 
you ever tried to enforce the law against liquor-sellers? 
If so, you know this to be true. 

They everywhere try to corrupt judges, to suborn 
witnesses, to defeat the ends of justice, and prevent an 
honest, fair, and full enforcement of the law. 

The liquor traffic of this country is a parasite on le- 
gitimate business life. The dealers and their advocates 
will tell you, before this amendment fight is over, that 
the dram-shop (in some way, they will be careful not to 
specify how) conduces to the general prosperity and the 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 89 

business interests of this State. If this statement is 
true, then certainly they have a good defence with 
which to meet the indictment against them. 

Let us for a few moments examine the theory of 
State building, in order to fully understand the causes 
of city, state, and national prosperity. 

A king from Asia Minor was one time visiting a king 
of Sparta. In Asia, in the early days of the world, all 
cities were walled, as a defence against enemies. When 
this king came to Sparta and discovered the absence of 
walls, he was astonished, and asked the king of Sparta, 
"Where are the walls of your cities ? v The Spartan 
ruler answered, " I will show you to-morrow." The 
next day he ordered the armies of Sparta to pass be- 
fore his guest in review. As these proud freemen 
marched by, the king, touching his visitor on the 
shoulder and pointing with pride to his soldiers, said, 
"These be the walls of Sparta; every man is a brick." 
Ladies and gentlemen, the morality, intelligence, and 
virtue of the people is the foundation of city, of county, 
of state, and of government building. 

The unity of society is the individual. If you wish 
good society you must build up the units of society, 
cultivate the institutions and customs v/hose influence 
and effects tend to improve and elevate the individual. 
If Iowa has institutions that only develop health, 
strength, morality, and intelligence, her future pros- 
perity is assured; but if she sanctions and enters into 
partnership with institutions which debauch public 
morals, destroy public health, impair individual credit, 
stimulate vice and crime, the day will come when, with 
a political system destroyed by social debauchery, Iowa, 
as a Republican State, will be a thing of the past. The 
laws of social and political health are fixed ; to violate 
them is to invite disease and death. 

" What constitutes a State? 

Not high-raised battlement or labored mound, 
Thick wall, or moated gate ; 

Not cities proud with spires and turrets crowned; 
Not bays and broad-armed ports, 

Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 
Not starred and spangled courts, 

Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 



90 THE PEOPLE VS. TttE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

No : men, high-minded men, 

With powers as far above dull brutes endued 
In forest, brake, or den, 

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude, — 
Men, who their duties know, — 

But know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain, 
Prevent the long-aimed blow, 

And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain ; 
l^kese constitute a State ; 

And sovereign law, that State's collected will, 
O'er thrones and globes elate 

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill." 

The defendants in this case have only to prove that 
the liquor traffic builds up the State by building up the 
individuals who constitute it. If it builds up its patrons 
socially, financially, intellectually, and morally, the case 
of the people against the traffic must fail. If, on the 
contrary, they fail to show that their business benefits 
directly their customers, then their business must go. 
Let us see if it does. 

Our Greenback friends, during the past four years, 
have told us a great many things that are true. One 
of the principles of political economy which they have 
been teaching persistently, or rather developing, is that 
there can be but two types of men in our social organ- 
ism, — the first the producing class — those who, by their 
work, add to the material wealth of the State, or at 
least produce enough to take care of themselves. That 
class have a right to a place as long as their production 
does not injuriously affect the society in which they 
live ; consequently they are dismissed from consider- 
ation. The other class, the non-producers, are the men 
who % must show to the satisfaction of society that they 
are entitled to a place outside the almshouse. All 
political economists group this second class into two 
sub-classes— assistant producers, and parasitic non- 
producers. 

Let me illustrate. Call up here a merchant and a 
doctor ; two of one class. Place here a saloon-keeper 
and a thief; two of the other class. Do not say I am 
making my point too strong; this is the teaching of 
every man whoever wrote a work on political economy, 
and I am simply stating what has been affirmed by men 
who advocate and believe in license. I will show you 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 9] 

the difference between these classes. I turn to the 
merchant and say to him : " You receive money from 
the producers of this country. You must show what 
you do for society, and what you do for the producer 
for the money you receive. What do you give in re- 
turn for the producer's money ? " He answers : " I am 
simply the agent of producers. I act as their 
hired man, to a certain extent. The producers manu- 
facture or grow certain commodities ; in another 
country other producers provide other commodities. I 
take the commodities which these men produce, ship to 
other producers, and bring their products back for 
others." Although our farmers tried to abolish the 
merchant a few years ago, they learned that the con- 
duct of commerce is a science, and that the men who 
were novices in the matter were illy fitted to carry it 
on. When we have examined the merchant, w r e find he 
returns equal value for the money he gets. 

We turn to the doctor and say : " Doctor, you receive 
money from the producers while you produce nothing 
yourself. Tell us what return you make for the money 
received." He answers : " The producers of this country 
do not take care of themselves. In the first place, many 
of them do not understand the laws of hygiene. They 
become sick, and I am simply the one who repairs the 
machinery.'' One time, on the Chicago, Milwaukee, and 
St. Paul Railroad, I was talking with an honored friend, 
Mr. Quick, and I asked him : " What is your business ? " 
He said : " I am pump-doctor/' He was the hydraulic 
engineer. He w r as the man who had charge of the sick 
pumps of this road. When a pump would not work, 
he doctored it. Now, the physician stands in the same 
relation to society in which that man stands to the 
railroad ; he is the one who repairs the physical ma- 
chinery of the producers. When we have examined 
him closely in regard to the money he has received, 
and the work he has done ; when we think how we 
have seen him standing by the sick-bed of loved ones, 
as hope was dying out, and the only ray of light was 
the thought that God gave and God was taking away, 
and heard him saying, to comfort the breaking heart : 
" While there is life there is hope"; when the loved 



02 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

one came back to health and strength, we took the 
money from our pocket and willingly paid the bill for 
services rendered. The physician assists the producer 
for the money he receives. 

Next, examine the others. " Mr. Liquor-dealer, you 
get the money, what do you give back for it ? " 
" Whiskey and beer." " Well, sir, let me put a hypo- 
thetical question to you. Suppose a man comes into 
your saloon to-morrow, and drinks. During the next 
week, the next month, the next year, he patronizes you. 
For ten years he is your best customer, giving you the 
larger part of his earnings and the greater part of his 
time. At the end of the time what will you have done 
for the man in return for the money he has given 
you?" If the liquor-seller is honest he will have to 
answer: "He would have been better off if he had 
never come into my place. I have not only taken his 
money, but I have cursed him in the taking." 

Try it again. " Mr. Liquor-dealer, suppose a man 
with a family comes into your place and becomes your 
patron. At the end of five or six years he dies in front 
of your bar under the influence of liquor. What will 
you have done for his wife and babies in return for 
the money you have received from him ? " Again the 
answer must be : " It would have been better for 
that wife and child if he had never traded with me," 
Do you see the difference? The merchant says: "I 
benefit him, and you see the benefit." The drink- 
vender has«to admit that he curses him, and everybody 
sees the effect of the curse. 

If I put the same question to the thief. " I give 
peace of mind." What do you mean ? " If a man has 
money he worries for fear it will be stolen ; after I 
steal it he soon stops worrying — I do not injure his 
brain, nerves, or muscle." 

Suppose four farmers come into Des Moines, each 
with fifty dollars in his pocket. One goes to a dry- 
goods store, one to a hardware store, one to a boot and 
shoe store, and the other to a dram-shop, and each 
spends his money in the place he visits. 

After two weeks I come to you and say : " Let us go 
and see those producers; see what they received for 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 93 

the money they gave those non-producers. " We drive 
to the home of the man who spent his money at the 
dry-goods store. " What did you get ? " " Do you see 
that dress which Nellie is wearing and that coat that 
Tom has on? Well, I gave the merchant fifty dollars, 
and he gave me in exchange these things. He is better 
off ; we are better off." Exchange of values ; both arc 
benefited. 

We go to the man who traded at the hardware store, 
and we say : " What did you receive ? " " Do you see 
the stove, and the axe, and those kettles ? " " Yes." 
" Well, I gave him fifty dollars ; he gave me these. 
We are better off; he is better off." 

We go to the man who spent his money at the boot 
and shoe store. " What did you receive for the money 
you paid?" "You see these boots which I am wear- 
ing, and the shoes Nellie has on, and the boots that 
Will, Dick, and Harry and the rest are wearing? I gave 
that merchant fifty dollars for them. We needed the 
boots and shoes, he needed the money, and we traded." 
An exchange of values ; both are benefited. 

Now we go to the man who spent the fifty dollars 
in the dram-shop, and say to him : " Sir, you paid that 
non-producer fifty dollars. What did you get back ? " 
"Come here and I will show you." Will he say that? 
No ; he will hang his head and say : " I got this flaming 
nose, these bleared eyes, and have been sick ever since." 

" My farmer friend, would you not have been better 
off if you had put the fifty dollars in the lamp and 
burned it, and never have gone to the drinking-place 
at all ? Yes; because you would have had a clear head, 
hard muscles, and could have gone to work at once and 
produced more wealth to take the place of that de- 
stroyed. The liquor-dealer took your money and 
unfitted your brain and muscles for the production of 
more wealth." 

In the Southern States you will see, in different 
places, clinging to the trees, the plant known to botan- 
ists as the mistletoe. You will say it is a beautiful plant, 
and yet the botanist will tell you that it is abase plant. 
You ask why ? Climb up the tree and see. What will 
you find? The plant putting its roots down into the 



94 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

earth to suck its life from inorganic matter? No. It is 
thrusting its rootlets into the bark of the tree, sucking 
its life from other life, living by the destruction of 
organic life. Botanists call it a parasite. Among 
insects you have the same class. Go out along the old 
California trail in my own State or in Wyoming, any- 
where between the Missouri River and the coast, stop 
in one of the old sod ranches and tell the keeper of it 
that you want a bed. Stipulate that it shall be unoccu- 
pied, and labor under the delusion that you will be 
given such a bed. When the time comes, you disrobe, 
retire, and start for dreamland. You will have to start 
pretty quick to get there. Just as you are passing 
over the border, something starts from your foot along 
up the leg. It stops, and you know where it lingers. 
You have a very urgent desire to put your hand down 
and interview it. By the time you reach down, there 
is something on your back and something on your side. 
You roll, and kick, and strike ; — it will be fortunate 
for you if you said your prayers before you went to 
bed ; it may keep you from saying something worse 
before you get up. At last you can endure it no longer ; 
you spring out, light a lamp, and throw down the cover- 
ing. See them run ! the flat-headed cowards ! 

Oh, how humanity loathes them ! The whole family — 
mosquitoes, gnats, jiggers, cockroaches, bed-bugs ; ugh ! 

Come up higher, to the highest order God created 
on earth, and you have the same type. Every gam- 
bler in this country is a parasite on social and business 
life. He is a man who, through the meshes of his 
games, entraps other men, and grows rich by the ruin 
of his victims ; a man who takes value without re- 
turning an equivalent. Every dram-shop in this 
country bears the same relation to society. The 
liquor-seller comes into your town, locates, commences 
his business, and sells his wares. What is the result? 
As the shingles go on his house, they tumble off the 
houses of his patrons. As he wears broadcloth, his 
victims come to rags. As he drives up the street with 
his nice team, his victims plod, with hods on their 
shoulders, earning money to buy the liquor man 
another team. 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 95 

As you meet the liquor-seller's wife, with her silks 
and satins, tripping down the street, you meet the 
victim's wife, scantily clad, carrying a basket of clothes 
she has washed to earn money to buy food for her 
babies. You meet the liquor-dealer's boy flying his 
kite, while his victim's boy meets you with : " Mister, 
won't you give me just one penny to buy bread ? I 
am starving." 

The license man objects : " But the liquor-dealers do 
not get rich, or their wives wear silks or satins." 
True : the picture is what would really he the condi- 
tion of the liquor-seller's family, but for the fact that 
blood-money always curses the receiver. Money 
made from the sale of liquor is like money made from 
gambling — hard to keep. But, my license friend, is not 
my point strengthened by your objection, for, it being 
true, the liquor traffic curses even the families of those 
who engage in it ? It is a universal curse, without a 
redeeming trait. 

The liquor-seller lives by ruining his customers. The 
dram-shop of this country, worse than the devil-fish of 
Victor Hugo, nqt only wraps its arms around its victim 
directly, but thrusts those insatiate arms into their 
homes, taking the carpets, pictures, books — everything 
that makes home pleasant for wife and children, and 
drawing into its maw the very element that civilizes 
and Christianizes the country. 

Suppose that I could take all the money which the 
producing community of the State of Iowa could make 
— I am not speaking of the money you could borrow 
in the Eastern States — but all the money you can 
make in a year. Pile it here on the table. This 
money must build the homes and fences ; lay down 
the carpets and buy the books ; it must run the stores, 
run the manufactories, carry on the newspapers, and 
build up all other kinds of trade. It is the life-blood 
of commerce. When you have it piled up here, the 
lawyers, doctors, ministers, merchants, newspaper 
men, and manufacturers gather around. Five thou- 
sand liquor-sellers step forward and say, " More than 
nine million dollars of that is ours." You say, " No "; 
but they say, " Gentlemen, we bought the privilege 



g6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

of the first grab at it, and that grab we are going to 
have,;' 

My friend, are you in business in Des Moines ? Do 
you not know this to be true: If a farmer who 
drinks liquor comes into this city w r ith one dollar in 
his pocket he will spend it for grog, and ask you to 
trust him for a dress for his wife. Do you not know 
that the saloons of this city and other cities are located 
on your principal business streets, and that they sell 
their liquors for cash, while you trust for the necessa- 
ries of life? Do you sell jewelry? If you do, do you 
sell the best of your jewelry to the man who spends 
his money in grog-shops? Do you sell nice clothing? 
How much do you sell to the man who spends the 
greater part of his money in a drinking-place? Do 
you sell silk dresses, my friend ? Are the patrons of 
the dram-shop your customers? Do you not know, 
business men, as a matter of fact, that the dram-shop 
unfits its patrons for you, and takes the money 
which would buy nice things to beautify the home — 
buy nice clothes and good food — leaving the home 
without these blessings? . 

" But," says one, " the liquor-dealer buys these 
things." u Oh, yes, gentlemen; but he is one where 
his patrons are a hundred. Where you sell him one 
suit of clothes you lose the sale of a hundred suits to 
his customers. Where you sell him one picture to go 
into his home to beautify it, you fail to sell his custom- 
ers a hundred pictures to make their homes pleasant 
for their children and families." 

Take a leech : press all the blood out of it. Now 
I w r ill show you a trick of license economy. I take a 
lancet, draw a scratch on my arm, and say to the leech, 
"Suck." It does. Just look at it. It is growing 
respectable— it is getting sleek, and smooth, and fat. 
When it is full, it will let go. There is this difference 
between insect leeches and human leeches : an insect 
leech ceases sucking when he is full, while a human 
leech will continue to suck as long as there is any 
money in the pockets of the victims or until he is 
choked off. 

I want to show you the statesmanship of license acJ* 
vocates. 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 97 

I take the leech and squeeze it ; two or three drops 
of blood come from its mouth and I swallow them, 
and say I have gained so much blood. Some boy in 
this house cries out, " You are foolish. Every drop of 
that blood was in your body — the leech sucked it out 
of you. You have only got part of it back, and that 
part in a way that will do you more injury than good." 
Liquor men come into your State, and the law draws 
a scratch on your business life and sticks them on, 
and says, " Suck." See them change their clothes ! 
See them grow fat as they live on the business life of 
the city and the country ! When the year rolls 
around, the city council inverts them, and squeezes 
out of them five hundred, one thousand, or fifteen 
hundred dollars, and says, "Ha! ha! we have, saved 
so much money to the city." But where did the 
liquor-dealer get the money? He did not have it 
when he came here. He came into our State, and 
without giving a single thing of value — without 
building up society, without helping society, he has 
sucked from it thousands of dollars. He keeps the 
largest part, and gives you a pittance to be allowed to 
continue. You take it, and congratulate yourselves 
that you are dividing up with the spoiler of your 
homes, your prosperity, and your civilization. 

Build up a city, gentlemen? Just as well build up a 
man by putting lice on his head as to hope to build up 
the material interests of a city by opening dram-shops! 
In every business relation the liquor traffic of the 
country is an institution which receives value without 
returning it. It lives on society as parasites live on 
other bodies. 

A saloon bears the same relation to legitimate busi- 
ness that a bed-bug does to a man who sleeps in the 
bed where the bug lives. Recently a lady said to me, 
" I wish you would not use such horrid comparisons." 
1 did not ask her how she knew they were horrjd. I 
simply said, " My dear madam, if I 'should catch a bed- 
bug and an ant, and place them here with microscopes 
over them, would you come and look at them ? " " Yes." 
" Well, I submit the bed-bug is prettier than the ant 
— prettier body, prettier legs. If I had mentioned the 



98 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

ant, you would not have objected? " " No." "Then 
why object to my mentioning the better-looking in- 
sect? Is it not from simply the way it makes its living ?" 

Ladies and gentlemen, you would admire a louse as 
much as you do a honey-bee if it lived in the same way. 
It is not the anatomy of the insect. Some of the 
parasites are among the most beautiful of insects. It 
is the way they live — by sucking their life out of 
other life — that raises the feeling of disgust and leads 
to their destruction. It is not a liquor-seller's clothes 
or looks which causes society to detest him and his 
trade : it is the way he lives in society — a mere parasite 
on business life. As the shingles go on his house they 
fall off the house of his customer; as he and his family 
live easily, in idleness, his customer and his customer's 
family suffer in rags. For this crime of parasitism he 
is on trial. 

I suppose I ought to say, in justice to myself, that 
I never like to compare things unfavorably. I do not 
like to drag anything into a position where it ought 
not to be, and I feel at this point like apologizing — to 
the bed-bug. You ask what I mean ? I will tell you. 
I never knew one bed-bug mean enough to eat another 
bed-bug, or one louse mean enough to eat another 
louse. It remains for the last and highest order, which 
God created in His own image, to develop the type 
which will live on their own kind and off their own 
species ; who will fasten the fangs of parasitic avarice 
in the pulsating flesh of their own kin, their own blood, 
their own sex, and their own race; and grow rich, not 
by the destruction of other species, not by the destruc- 
tion of other orders, but by the destruction of indi- 
viduals who feel the same, who enjoy the same, as they 
do. It is unfair to a parasite that lives on other forms 
of life to compare it with a class low enough, vile 
enough, to live on its own kind without a feeling of 
sympathy, without a pulsation of regret. 

Again, the liquor traffic is the enemy of home life. 
The keystone to American civilization is the American 
home. I would I could take you to the frontier — to 
the cattle and mining towns of this country, where 
home life is comparatively unknown, and by ocular dem- 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 99 

onstration impress this fact upon your minds — show 
you how the words '" mother " and "home" have the 
power to awaken the latent manhood in, and lead out 
to a grander and better life, men seemingly lost to all 
influences for good. You, especially you business men, 
know how great this influence is on public life. The 
opposition you meet, the trickery and fraud you see 
practiced, make you hard, uncharitable, cynical, and, 
when gone from home for months, bitter and selfish. 
You return to your home, and, in the presence of wife 
and children, hatred, selfishness, bitterness, cynicism 
vanish like the cold, clammy, poisonous March fog be- 
fore the morning sun. Home life and love is the sun 
which fructifies all the nobler impulses of man's nature. 
Few men go from home with the kiss of wife upon their 
lips, and the soft touch of baby fingers lingering in 
pleasant memories on their neck, but feel more charity 
for their fellow-men, more love for humanity, and a re- 
newed desire to build themselves up in all that pertains 
to true manhood. Home is the moral and political 
conservator of the nation, the antidote of communism, 
socialism, riot, vice, and bloodshed. A man who goes 
from home with the softening influences of woman- 
hood's homage and childhood's love lingering about 
him, seldom goes to murder, rob, or incite riqt. 

Into this garden of American hope the breath of the 
liquor traffic comes like the hot winds of the desert. By 
the use of the things sold in the dram-shop, all the finer 
feelings of the husband and father are injured and his 
passions stimulated, and from being the head — the life 
of the home — he soon becomes a despot and a terror. 
The money which should be used to buy pictures, 
books, carpets, and other things to make home pleas- 
ant, is spent to still further lower and degrade him. A 
drunkard's " home " ! Can there be any greater mockery 
of the sacred word? Any institution or custom which 
causes such results is a terrible enemy to American lib- 
erty and civilization. 

Again, the liquor traffic is the enemy of an honest 
ballot and a fair count. The effect of the dram-shop 
is to destroy the intellectual force and moral character 
of its patrons, as well as to reduce them financially, 



3 00 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

often to beggary. The high moral sense which should 
govern every voter is lost when a diseased craving for 
stimulants controls a man. In such a condition he is 
open to corrupt influences, and comes to regard his vote 
as a merchantable commodity which ought to bring 
enough in the markets of corruption to minister to his 
appetite and supply his wants. The threat of the brew- 
ers in their late convention was based upon the knowl- 
edge that the traffic had placed thousands of men in 
such a moral, physical, and financial condition that 
they could be corrupted. The liquor men have always 
boasted of their political power obtained in this way ; 
and many a candidate has felt it necessary to leave 
money with the liquor-seller to influence the bummer 
vote. Look at Chicago, New York, and other cities. 
An honest vote in some parts of those cities is impos- 
sible. " In what parts ? " Those where the dram-shops 
are most plentiful. Unless the liquor traffic of the 
country is destroyed, it will do for the whole nation 
what it has done for the great centres of population ; 
and as the life of this Government depends largely on 
the purity of the ballot-box, which can only be guaran- 
teed by the morality and intelligence of the individual 
voter, the Government must destroy the dram-shops or 
they will destroy the Government. 

This is, in part, the case for the people. The issue 
raised is one of simple fact. Guilty or not guilty ? 
The traffic must plead to the indictment. If the 
charges made are false, the amendment should be 
defeated. If they are true, it must, for the good of 
the whole country, be carried. Standing on the street 
corners, blowing or bulldozing, does not meet the counts 
in the indictment against this villainous social criminal. 

Does regulation regulate? These charges are made 
against licensed dram-shops. If the charges are true, 
license is a failure. The license system of grog-shops is 
on trial, and it will not benefit liquor-sellers to cry out 
" Stop thief ! " with the idea of turning public attention 
from the real issue. Is the licensed traffic guilty of the 
crimes and misdemeanors alleged ? If it is, then 
license is a failure. The condition of things cannot be 
worse. The defendants must meet the indictment and 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. IOI 

show its counts false, and that dram-shops are a bless- 
ing, that license is a success, that they obey law, that the 
liquor traffic purines the ballot-box, discourages cor- 
ruption, builds up society, and promotes law and order. 
If they can show this, their business is safe. Liquor 
men, the voters of Iowa are waiting for you to meet the 
facts. Will you do it, or dodge and cry, " Keep it out 
of politics "; " Prohibition is a failure "; " Beer is a 
temperance beverage"; " Moral suasion is the way to 
work"? These questions are not involved in the cam- 
paign. The license system of grog-shops is being tried 
by its record, and you must confine yourselves to the 
issues ; any evasion, or failure to meet the charges fairly, 
honestly, and manfully will be a confession of guilt, 
and will be so regarded by the people. 

But, ladies and gentlemen, the drunkard-makers can- 
not and will not try to explain away or justify, the 
record they themselves have made. Every charge 
made by the amendment advocates is true, and the de- 
fence, as outlined by the brewers of Iowa, is in keeping 
with the nature and character of the traffic, not only in 
Iowa, but elsewhere. A telegram from Dayton, Ohio, 
received to-day says : " The Dayton Journal is being 
boycotted by members of the liquor associations on ac- 
count of its stand on the Pond and Smith bills." 

The record of the liquor business, the creed of the 
brewers, the admissions of their advocates, show con- 
clusively that the dram-shop is a bulldozer, a rebel, a 
defiant outlaw, which assassinates business, character, 
or life, as it may deem best, to intimidate opposition, 
and prevent investigation of its record and effects. 
These cowards are universal bulldozers. I never knew 
the liquor business to do a manly thing in the world. 
I never knew it to make a manly fight. I never knew 
it to stand squarely on an issue. Its whole defence is 
a show of defiance, a show of bravado, a show of bulldoz- 
ing, a show of braggadocio ; and when these fail, the de- 
fence is private, cowardly assassination. What is the first 
argument brought against the amendment in this State? 
" You cannot prohibit the sale of liquor." What does 
that mean ? Rebellion ! 

If prohibition will not prohibit, what is the cause of 



102 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

its failure? The women will obey the law, the decent 
men will obey the law, and if it fails it will be because 
the liquor outlaws refuse to obey the will of the people. 
They are self-confessed traitors to good government. 

I tell the liquor men of this country that if they 
think they are greater than this Government, the same 
thought has been entertained by other men. There is 
one thing more certain than that — this Government is 
greater than any class of rebels: it can enforce any 
law which a majority of this people, through their 
legislatures, say shall be the supreme law of this State. 
This must be taken for granted — that the State of 
Iowa can enforce any law that may be passed by a 
majority in its Legislature. If the votes of the major- 
ity of citizens expressed in the statutes of Iowa cannot 
be enforced ; if five thousand saloon-keepers could 
bulldoze and intimidate the Government of this com- 
monwealth, then the sooner that Government goes into 
bankruptcy and you get one which is good for some- 
thing, the better it will be for humanity, civilization, 
and liberty. 

Through the canvass in Kansas the same thing was 
said. They did not say that the charges made against 
the dram-shop were false. They said : " If you pass 
the amendment you cannot enforce it "; and, armed 
with bottled beer, they tried to bulldoze the State. 
What was the result ? 

Coming from Topeka, recently, to Kansas City, I w T as 
sitting in the seat just behind the leader of the anti- 
prohibitionists of that State — I had the pleasure of 
meeting him on the public platform during the can- 
vass and discussing the question with him — we were 
talking about other questions for a time. At last he 
turned to me, and, drawing his face down as long as 
Job's when he was in affliction, went on to say, " Finch, 
all I predicted at Bismarck Grove in regard to this 
accursed law has come true." 

"Well, what is it?" 

"Why," he said, " it is killing Kansas. Germans 
are leaving the State by hundreds. It is driving men 
out, and immigration will not come. The State is 
dead." 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. I03 

I said to him : " You have this consolation : if the 
prohibitory law has killed your State, if it has driven 
large numbers out of it, then if Kansas is not to be 
renowned for the number of its people, it will be 
renowned for the sobriety, intelligence, and the moral- 
ity of those who remain. " 

" Hold on," said the gentleman ; " there is more 
whiskey and beer sold in Kansas to-day than there 
ever was before. You can get it everywhere." 

Looking closely at him I asked, u For what, then, are 
those men leaving Kansas? " He saw he was caught, 
and abandoned the conversation. 

If I pick up a copy of one daily paper published in 
Chicago, or another from St. Louis, I frequently see an 
editorial saying, in substance, that " Kansas is dead"; 
" Immigration to Kansas has stopped "; " The prohibi- 
tory law has killed Kansas." Perhaps the very next 
day I pick up a copy of the same paper, and I see an 
editorial, or an article by an anonymous correspondent, 
saying, " Whiskey is being sold in every town in Kansas 
just as free as water"; "There are more drunkards in 
Kansas than when the law was passed." 

If men will lie, they should be consistent liars. The 
liars who are fighting against prohibition lack intelli- 
gence, for their lies contradict each other. In Maine 
they have fought the prohibitory law by the same 
contradictory lying. 

If the battle had been between the liquor rebels of 
Kansas and the moral citizens of Kansas, there would 
not have been an open grog-shop in the State three 
months after the law passed. No sooner had the law 
been passed to enforce the amendment, than the com- 
bined liquor power of this nation stood behind the 
outlaws to encourage them and help them to defy the 
supreme law of that State ; and what is still meaner, 
men from other States went in to help the outlaws 
assassinate the morality and the character of Kansas. 

I remember reading in one of the great newspapers 
of Chicago, a long article, saying that in the Southern 
States the constitutional amendments were defied and 
the Civil Rights bill was a dead letter. The editor 
appealed to the solid North to rise en masse, and at the 



104 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

ballot-box crush out this rebellion against the Consti- 
tution and the laws. It said : " When an article is in 
the Constitution, when statutes have been passed to 
enforce it, men are rebels who defy it." And yet this 
same newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, is down in the 
mud before the liquor power of this nation, and has 
become the apologist for, and the sympathizer with, 
the liquor rebels of Kansas. It advises them to defy 
the supreme law of that State, and the statutes made to 
enforce it. Kansas' grand Governor — St. John — it calls 
every mean name which it can find in the drunkard- 
maker's vocabulary. Oh ! if there is any one thing that 
would make every drop of blood in my veins grow hot 
with indignation, it is the way that the opposition 
meet this issue. I know John P. St. John, of Kansas. 
I have seen him with his family, standing, as he does, 
the grandest Republican Governor of the country. The 
opposition have not met him like men ; they have 
called him everything that was vile, attempted to 
assassinate his character, traduce him and continue 
to traduce him ; and men who ought to be in a better 
business, have become tools of the liquor rebels to 
carry on this dirty work. 

Can the liquor business be stopped ? Men of Iowa, 
there is no need of asking that question here. When 
the saloon men stand up and say prohibition will not 
prohibit, and that the traffic cannot be stopped, I 
answer, " I know better." The idea of five thousand 
liquor-dealers being able to control this State is ab- 
surd. When I hear a man or find a newspaper whim- 
pering and crying, " It ought to be stopped, but we 
cannot stop it ; they will sell anyhow," I get dis- 
gusted, especially in this State, settled by old soldiers. 
Some of you men, a few years ago, left your State, 
your mothers, wives, and children, and went down to 
the Southern land, and there, in the face of cannon— 
and you knew that behind those guns were brave 
men fighting for what they believed to be right, as 
you were fighting for what you believed to be right — 
in face of the sheeted fire and leaden hail, where 
death was on every breeze, you fought, suffered, and 
bled. For what? Just simply to say this Govern- 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 10$ 

merit was able to hold itself together, to enforce its 
laws, and to live. 

The idea that in this State, filled with men who 
wear the scars of honorable battle — scars which were 
obtained in strife that makes them honored through- 
out the world — the idea of these men getting down 
to whimper and say, " The State cannot enforce the 
law ! " 

A Union general was riding up to the rear of his 
forces at the battle of Antietam, when he saw from 
the front ranks a tall soldier start, and, in double- 
quick time, make his way to the rear. The general 
was astonished, and, looking at him for a moment, 
said, " Halt, sir. Go back to your regiment." 

The fellow stopped, commenced to cry, and said, 
" General, I can't ; I am a coward, and I told them I 
was a coward when they drafted me into the army. ,, 

" Well/' said the general, " if I was a coward I 
would not be a great baby. Go back, sir." 

" Well, I wish I was a baby, and a gal baby at that." 

Ridiculous ! Yes ; but is it half as ridiculous as 
for men, who are the Commonwealth of Iowa, to go 
whimpering around, " It ought to be stopped, but we 
cannot stop it. They will sell anyhow " ? " Mr. Liquor- 
seller, you are in a mighty mean business — you are 
ruining homes — you are making criminals — you are 
filling jails — you are crowding almshouses — you are 
breaking the Sabbath — you are damning souls ; but 
we cannot stop you — you will sell anyhow. Please 
give us five hundred dollars with which to build side- 
walks in our cities." 

Ladies and gentlemen, this Government is greater 
than any of its vices. When any of its vices become 
greater in force, the Government will die. When any 
class of men is able to defy the Government success- 
fully, then it becomes the autocrat. If you grant 
that the liquor-dealers of this State are greater in 
power in the State, then you grant that Iowa has 
ceased to exist as a commonwealth, and has become 
an oligarchy of the liquor traffic. The supreme power 
of the State is the Government, and if the dram-shops 
have power greater than it exerts, the State is merely 



I06 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

a puppet in the hands of a vital, aggressive, and active 
force. The threat of the Iowa brewers, the threat of 
the Iowa distillers, is an open declaration that the 
State of Iowa is not able to control them, and that 
they propose to control the State. The question, as it 
comes to you, is simply, u Will you be men ; will you 
assert your power to consider the question on its merits 
and settle it, or will you be bulldozed — will you be in- 
timidated — will you be corrupted, and sell your birth- 
right for a mess of pottage ? " 

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the case as I wish to 
present it to you ; take it to your homes ; think over it 
fairly, fully, honestly ; and when you render your ver- 
dict, have these two things in mind : 1st. Your obliga- 
tions to your own homes — your own families. 2d. Your 
obligations as citizens of a State, to protect all homes, 
all families, all citizens. 

The temperance question was never so dear to me — 
the cause never seemed so much my own, although I 
always loved it — as it was after the little bright-eyed 
boy came into my home. When he comes and climbs 
on my knee, puts his chubby little arms around my 
neck, and calls me " papa," the thought comes to me : 
" Will there ever be the time when my boy will reel along 
the street a drunkard, wear the chains of a criminal, or 
die in the almshouse, as the result of drink ? " And so. 
if I could vote in your State in June, I should just ask 
what would be the relation of the grog-shop to that boy 
of mine. 

You may say, " I have no boys ; I have girls." 

A gentleman, some years ago, came into my office 
and said to me, " What are the divorce laws of this 
State?" 

I said, " I hope you are not going to apply for a 
divorce. It is an exceedingly disagreeable kind of liti- 
gation." 

A couple of ladies had come in with him. I saw one 
was an old lady with gray hair, the other young, with 
care lines visible in her face, and a look of mental misery 
and suffering there. 

" I have one girl," the man said, and he introduced 
me to her, " the light of our home ; and if she is here, 



EXAMINATION OF THE ISSUES AND DEFENCE. 107 

I want to say to you she is just as good a girl as God 
ever gave a father. She was always kind to her mother. 
There never was a time when it was necessary to punish 
her in our home ; if she did wrong, she was ready to 
come and ask forgiveness. She married a man I thought 
to be worthy of her. We did not know he drank, but it 
was so. Five years ago they were married. God has 
given them one child. The father drank more and more. 
My daughter did not tell me for a long time ; she would 
not let us know how she was suffering. One night her 
husband went home, and in a drunken rage knocked 
her down with a chair." The old man stepped forward, 
raised the hair from her forehead, and showed the scar. 
" Struck her," continued the father, " struck her like a 
brute, the man who had sworn to love and honor her. 
He took her — the light of our home — from our arms, 
and then abused her like a dog." 

Gentlemen voters, such may be your story some day. 
The little girl who will come to you to-night with bright 
eyes and loving smile, who will run and bring the slip- 
pers to papa, may some day return to you with a broken 
heart, her life ruined by a man who has been wrecked 
in the saloons, if you vote to continue them. When 
you make up your verdict, take into consideration your 
home interests and heart interests. 

There is one thing, however, important as are these 
interests, that is still higher : the thought of how God 
would have you act. Dare you go to the polls on the 
27th of June and cast a vote that you cannot ask God 
to bless ? My friends, as you go there and vote, think 
if you in the silence of your chamber can ask God to 
bless the vote. If you vote to continue the drunkard- 
factories, of course you are willing to pray God to pros- 
per them, to ask that their customers may increase. 

So, if I were on the jury, I would take into consid- 
eration my home interests, the interests of my country, 
the approval of my God, and then, examining the facts, 
I would vote either to shut the saloons or to continue 
them, as my judgment and conscience dictated. 

Gentlemen, when you have written your verdict on 
the 27th of June, it will either roll Iowa up to the 
plane of the civilization of Kansas and Maine, or allow 



108 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

her to remain down in the old darkness of compromise 
and partnership with wrong. God grant that Iowa 
may lead the way through which my State and the 
other parts of this Republic may follow, until in all the 
galaxy of American States there shall not be one that 
will license a business to ruin its citizens, to debauch its 
morality, or to break down its institutions. 

" The crisis is upon us ! face to face with us it stands, 
With solemn lips of questioning, like the Sphinx in Egypt sands. 
This day we fashion destiny, the web of life we spin, 
This day for all hereafter choose we holiness or sin. 
Even now from misty Gerizim, or Ebal's cloudy crown, 
Call we the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down." 



VI. 

THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 

An Address delivered at the Opera-House, Iowa City, Sunday even- 
ing, May 7, 1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : Never was a more fully 
and fairly defined issue submitted to any people than 
the one now pending in this State. The case is enti- 
tled, " The People vs. Drunkard-factories, alias sample- 
rooms, alias grog-shops, alias dram-shops, alias saloons, 
alias hotels, alias bar-rooms.'' No criminal ever ap- 
peared in a police court with more aliases than this 
criminal. The American drunkard-factory is on trial 
for high crimes against society and treason against the 
Government. The terrible charges against it are made 
by the people, openly, boldly, and emphatically. The 
criminal is in the court of the people and asked to 
plead to the indictment. "Guilty or not guilty ?" is 
the question asked by the clerk, and it must be an- 
swered. 

The charges must be disproved or the drunkard-fac- 
tories must be destroyed. The position taken by the 
drunkard-makers and their friends is neither fair, hon- 
est, nor decent. Their first defence is personal slander, 
lying, and mud-throwing. They evidently hope there- 
by to turn the attention of the people from the real 
criminal in the case. It is the old dodge of the snatch- 
thief, who, when pursued by officers with the cry, 
"Stop thief! " joins in the cry, to turn public attention 
from himself. 

Once, when a boy, my father told an elder brother 
that if he and I would take care of the ducks on the 
farm during the summer, we might have all the young 
ones we could raise. During the summer we took good 
care of the ducks, and had, I think, eighty-six in the 

(109) 



110 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

fall. The visions of skates and sleds grew apace. The 
duck-pen was near the stream, and one night an in- 
truder dug in and killed several of the ducks. A trap 
was set, but the next night he dug around it, and con- 
tinued his depredations. At last, brother and I deter- 
mined to sit up and watch. The gun was duly loaded, 
and we sat down near the pen. Soon after midnight 
the sound of alarm among the ducks told us the enemy 
was there. We rushed to the pen — blocked up the 
hole, and caught him ; but, ladies and gentlemen, it has 
always been a question, which were the worse punished, 
the dead animal or the boys whose clothes he spoiled. 
That experience taught me never to fight skunks, 
whether quadruped or biped, unless I did it with a long 
pole ; and in this contest I shall not change the rule, 
whether the animal be a victim of the drunkery, or an 
apostate minister, who, Judas-like, having sold his Mas- 
ter, is now scorned and despised even by those who 
bought him. 

The temperance leaders will press the charges — sim- 
ply seeking to force a fair, honest, and full trial of the 
case — and if the other side fail to meet the issues, or 
resort to mud-throwing, as their dirty tools are now 
doing, it will be an admission of the guilt of the traffic, 
and simply show how low, ignorant, vile, and mean, are 
its hirelings. 

To thinking men, their present contortions, evasions, 
quibbles, foolish statements, and lying must be disgust- 
ing. The issue is plain ; a child can understand ; but 

" They wriggle in and wriggle out, 
Leaving the hunter still in doubt, 
Whether the snake that made the track 
Was going out or coming back." 



By such a course they enter a plea of guilty to the 
charges, and their evasions are simply made in hopes 
of reducing the nature and force of the inevitable ver- 
dict. They are like the, condemned murderer who is 
anxious, to have his sentence commuted to imprison- 
ment for life. Their boldest leaders are willing to 
enter a plea of guilt]/, if the people will make the ver- 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. Ill 

diet imprisonment in high-license pens, rather than the 
death penalty of prohibition. 

In Nebraska we have tried high license. It is a fraud 
and a failure. The saloon-keepers do not try to enforce 
the law against illicit selling. There is more liquor sold 
as a beverage in the drug-stores of my State than in 
the drug-stores of your own. // will take more force, 
more power to enforce a high-license law than complete 
and entire prohibition. But, as this plea for reduction 
of penalty has been entered, let us to-night examine 
the quibbles on which it is asked. 

Their first defence — the one urged more than all 
others — I wish to read from their own papers. It is as 
follows : 

"It is more than twenty-four years ago, that the people of Iowa 
solemnly enacted that the business of brewing beer should be thence- 
forth a legal industry. This was done with full understanding and 
knowledge that it necessarily implied the investment of capital in 
property devoted to that business, and that such legislation, in the 
nature of things, ought to be permanent, and not a trap set to catch 
the confiding. 

"We were justified in believing that this was to be the settled 
policy of the State ; and we have, relying in good faith upon the 
fairness and honesty of the people, invested our means in this busi- 
ness." 

These men say : " If this amendment passes, it will 
confiscate the saloons, breweries, and distilleries." An 
editor in your own city says : " It is an axe-and-torch 
amendment. " " The Government has no right to de- 
stroy the drunkeries of Iowa,'" is the claim made. That 
the State has the right to destroy the business of liq- 
uor-selling, is settled. In the language of the Supreme 
Court of the United States : " It is the undoubted and 
reserved power of every State here, as a political body, 
to decide, independent of any provisions made by Con- 
gress, though subject not to conflict with any one of 
them when rightful, who shall compose its population, 
who become its residents, who its citizens, who enjoy 
the privileges of its laws, and be entitled to their pro- 
tection and favor, and what kind of property and busi- 
ness it will tolerate and protect!' 

The State having the right to destroy the drunkery, 
the question for you, citizens of Iowa, to determine is, 



112 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC 

would such action be right and just? The State is a 
society of right, — justice is its fundamental idea. In 
this case Iowa cannot afford to be unjust. 

Investigation will show that the States have always 
claimed the power to prohibit, both directly and indi- 
rectly, the wrongful use of property, or the use which 
injured society and civilization. 

There was a time when the State of New York 
allowed lotteries to exist in its great cities ; but, after 
trial, it became evident that the business was debauch- 
ing the morals and intelligence of its people ; and its 
Legislature said to the lottery-dealers : " You have 
forfeited the right to conduct this business, and it must 
stop." The dealers had thousands of dollars invested 
in their great buildings, in their advertisements, and 
in tickets, and machinery. But as soon as it was 
demonstrated that the business of conducting lotteries 
was an enemy to public morals, the State, obeying 
the law of self-defence, killed the business, and that 
ended it. 

Some years ago, another class of individuals — I will 
not call them men, they do not deserve the name — 
made money by printing obscene literature. Over this 
country they spread it, in schools, private homes, every- 
where. This execrable business was allowed to con- 
tinue for a long time, until the detectives in our great 
cities commenced to see the harvest of crime which 
was being reaped. Thousands of men and women 
were debauched and ruined through this traffic. The 
State saw that a great ulcer was located on its life, and 
it took the scalpel of law and cut it out. To-day it is 
a penitentiary offence to send such literature through 
the mails. 

Years before railroads reached the State of Iowa, 
there were thousands of coaches carrying the mails and 
passengers across the State. I think Iowa City was 
one of the old stage-coach stations. Men had thou- 
sands of dollars invested in coaches and horses. The 
State had chartered these coach lines, but the day 
came when the State said: "It is for the best interest 
of Iowa that we have railroads." It chartered the 
railroads and killed the stage-coach dead as a hammer. 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. H3 

In examining the first defence, the most noticeable 
thing about it is its falsehoods. It says : " The people 
of Iowa solemnly enacted that the business of brewing 
should be henceforth a legal industry/' "We were 
justified in believing that this was to be the settled 
policy of the State." Remember the rule of law — 
" False in one, false in all." What are the facts? The 
decision of the Supreme Court of the United States was 
given years ago. Every drunkard-maker in the State 
of Iowa at that time knew such decision had been 
made. Not a single man who is selling liquor to-day 
in the State was selling it then. A decision was made 
by the Supreme Court ; the right of the people to de- 
stroy the traffic was affirmed ; the people were inclined 
to assert that right ; the liquor men knew it ; they bet 
their money on the chances as a gambler bets his 
money on the cards in his hands ; and now, beaten by 
their own games, they are pleading the baby act ; like 
the school-boy, trying to trade back. Did anybody 
compel them to go into the business? They knew that 
the question of its being stopped was being agitated. 
They took the chances. The statement that they had 
reason to think license would be the settled policy is 
false. 

But what about the people enacting that brewing 
should be a legal industry? 

In the year 1855, the people of this State, by a vote 
of 25,555 for, and 22,645 against, prohibited the liquor 
traffic in this State. Notice now: the people did 
this ; the liquor men then had no right in the State 
whatever. The people had decreed the end of the 
trade. A few years rolled away, and the drunkard- 
makers went to your Legislature — they did not come 
to you — they went to a few designing demagogues 
among your politicians, and said : " If you will destroy 
the people's law, in defiance of the people's verdict, 
we will guarantee to your political party a certain 
support." 

Honest men, if they had thought the law had 

wronged them, would have gone to the people to ask 

for a rehearing of the case on its merits. This they 

did not do. They dared not go before them. They 

8 



114 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

simply attempted to defraud the people of the State. 
The politicians entered into the coalition, and, in 
defiance of public opinion, the traffic was readmitted. 
The business to-day stands in Iowa as a thief who has 
broken into your house. The liquor men know their 
business is here by fraud — that they are trespassers 
on the people's domain. The drunkard-factories se- 
cured readmission to Iowa by contract with political 
demagogues. The liquor men ask justice — it shall be 
given them. Those who ask equity must show equity. 
A contract secured by fraudulent representations is 
void. 

What representations did they make to secure the 
readmission of their business into this State ? 

They said : " We will only sell wine, beer, and cider." 

They said : " We will not sell liquors to minors or 
drunkards, or on Sunday." Each of these agreements 
they have persistently violated. 

They have violated every contract, betrayed every 
friend. The celebrated German, A. F. Hofer, says: 

M The saloon-keeper has put the manacles on his own hands. He 
has forged the handcuffs that are put upon him by a hundred 
enactments of law. He has wrought the chain of statutes, link 
by link, that is slowly crushing the life out of his business. And 
now he has attached the heavy ball to that chain which will drag 
not only his business, but the manufacturer who supplies him, 
down to perdition. The Senate has passed the constitutional 
amendment which will forever banish the retail liquor business 
outside of the pale of tolerated occupations, and which forever 
brands it as contraband in our Commonwealth. It has culminated 
into a thunderbolt welded into our fundamental law. 

"We say the saloon-keeper has brought upon himself the 
terrible forces and rigors of the law. He was not satisfied with 
the old Iowa law, which treated the sale of liquors as any other 
merchandise. He abused its leniency shamefully. He was not 
satisfied with the original Maine law, which enabled him to avoid 
dispensing the more poisonous alcoholic liquors, and relieved 
him of responsibility as to civil damage. He abused the law 
like a dog. He brought upon himself the law which made him 
responsible for all damages flowing out from the sale of what flowed 
in. He was not satisfied with that, but next involved the owner of 
property in which he kept saloon. Next he abused the liberality of 
the privileges so that the Two-Mile Act and the Election laws were 
forged and hung about his insubmissive neck." 

The people answer the first defence by the following 
facts : 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 115 

1st. The statements upon which the liquor traffic 
secured admission into this State were absolutely and 
wholly false. 

2d. The traffic has violated every provision of the 
contract. It has never obeyed the law. It is an out- 
law, and has by its own acts shown that it must be 
treated as such. 

The law says : " It shall be unlawful for any person 
to sell or give away, by agent or otherwise, any spirit- 
uous or other intoxicating liquors, including wine or 
beer, to any minor for any purpose whatsoever, unless 
on the written order of his parent, guardian, or family 
physician. " Have they obeyed this provision of the 
law, or have they violated it ? Are they in a condition 
to come into the court of the people and plead a viola- 
tion of contract ? The law continues : " Or to sell the 
same to any intoxicated person, or any person in the 
habit of becoming intoxicated. " Have they kept this 
provision of the law, or have they violated it? The 
law says, " It shall be unlawful for any person wilfully 
to sell or keep for sale intoxicating, malt, or vinous liq- 
uors which have been adulterated or drugged by admix- 
ture with any deleterious or poisonous substance." 
Have they kept this provision of the law, or have they 
violated it ? The law provides, " It shall be unlawful 
to sell or buy property of any kind on the first day of 
the week, commonly called Sabbath/' Have they kept 
this provision of the law, or have they violated it ? 

The rule of law is, that if I make a contract with you 
to do certain things and fail to fulfil my part of it, and 
by my failure cause you to cancel the contract, I have 
no right to plead injustice or to ask for damages. If 
the liquor men of this State have obtained admission 
here by fraudulent representations, they have no right 
in equity, in justice, or common honesty, to come be- 
fore this people and demand that a system introduced 
by lies, and living in outlawry, shall longer continue to 
legally exist. They must come with clean hands into 
this court. This they cannot do. Their hands are not 
clean. With such a record, their cry of injustice and 
persecution reminds one of the young man who mur- 
dered his father and mother, — when placed an trial, he 



Il6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

asked the judge to be merciful to him " because he was 
an orphan/' 

If the liquor business had not injured the State, it 
would not be on trial for its life to-day. It has only its 
own vile record to meet. 

Certain of the liquor men, abandoning the contest, 
ask: " Are you not going to pay us for our business?" 
Certainly, the people would not let you go without set- 
tling ; they want to force you to return to society what 
you have taken from it, or to in part repair the damage 
done by your business. If you made a contract with 
me to go upon my farm, and then after a while were 
ejected for violation of contract, and sued me for dam- 
age, I would set up the damage which you had done to 
the farm. My liquor friends, make up your bill. Charge 
up the saloon, brewery, distillery, every trapping and 
fixture you have, in one bill. All that the temperance 
men ask is, that you give them a chance to file against 
you a bill for the damage you have done Iowa in the 
past twenty-four years. They want you to indemnify 
every wife whose home you have ruined ; every little 
boy you have cursed ; return to the tax-payers every 
dollar they have paid out to maintain a police force, 
and to run asylums, prisons, and almshouses to take 
care of your products. Pour back into Iowa's treasury 
the money you have taken from it, and, after the bal- 
ance is struck, if the people owe you anything, they 
will pay it. Will you do it ? Put in your bill to-mor- 
row, and let the WORLD see who is the debtor. 

If the liquor men of this State were compelled to 
return to Iowa what they have taken from it, they 
would be beggared, and they know it. They had no 
money when they started a few years ago. Now look 
at their great distilleries, breweries, and palatial 
saloons. Where did they get the money to build 
them? By making drunkards of the people. They 
have taken it from the wife and the baby. They have 
ruined the home life of the State of Iowa ; and now, 
when they have amassed their millions by beggaring 
the people, they turn around and whimper because 
they will not let them continue this accursed business. 
They ought to be content with the ill-gotten gains 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 11/ 

which the State has given them twenty-four years to 
take from the people. I do not doubt that they feel 
badly. It is pitiful, when men have been supported 
in idleness and grown rich by the ruin of others, to force 
them into honest callings and avocations, and compel 
them to benefit the world in return for the blessings it 
gives them. In their days of disconsolation and sorrow 
the old lady's Scripture may soothe them and keep up 
their rapidly failing spirits. 

A minister once called on an old lady, who was a 
member of his congregation, and said to her : 

"Aunt Sally, how are you getting along ?" 

She replied : " Not very well, sir. Sal's run off with 
the hired man ; John is gettin' obstropulous, and the 
pigs have eaten up the garden truck. But in my trials 
and tribulations there's jest one passage o' Scripter that 
alius consoles my heart, nerves me for the trials to 
come, and brings me nearer the throne." 

Said the minister, "Aunt Sally, what is that ?" 

" Well," she said, " I don't remember jest whether 
it's in Proverbs or in Psalms where it says, ' Grin and 
bear it.' " 

This advice I commend to the drunkard-makers of 
this State in this hour of their approaching defeat. 

The second defence urged is : 

" Beer is comparatively a harmless beverage, contain- 
ing only about four per cent, of alcohol, and experience 
has shown that its use tends to diminish the amount of 
distilled liquors required, and thereby decreases drunk- 
enness and promotes temperance." 

You see they are fighting for beer in this country. 
They tell you the people have no right to interfere with 
the social custom of the German, because he used to 
drink beer in Germany ; but the poor Irishman who used 
to drink whiskey in Ireland cannot legally get a nip in 
Iowa. If I was an Irishman living in this State, if for 
no other reason than to show that I was as good as a Ger- 
man, I would vote for this amendment, and get even with 
them. I submit, as a matter of fact, if the German has 
a right to his national beverage, the Irishman has a 
right to his ; and it is the worst kind of demagoguery 
that will refuse Pat a nip and give Hans £.11 he wants. 



Il8 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

I am glad I have so many students around me as I 
take up this beer issue, for a knowledge of history will 
help to impress the point. Saloon men say that distilled 
spirits are the primary cause of drunkenness. This 
statement is best answered by the history of the evil. 
The process of distillation of alcohol was, in rude forms, 
undoubtedly known to the early alchemists, but it was 
first taught by Albucasis, an Arabian chemist or alche- 
mist, who lived eleven hundred years after the begin- 
ning of the Christian era. Distilled liquors were not 
used as beverages until after the thirteenth century. 
Brandy, whiskey, gin, rum, and other distilled liquors, 
have a history of less than eight hundred years. Stand- 
ing before this audience of scholars and students, I wish 
to say, the worst forms of national drunkenness the 
world has ever seen existed before distilled beverages 
existed or the process of making them was known. 
The use of .fermented liquors then, as now, created a 
desire, a craving for stronger stimulants. Distilled spir- 
its not being known, fermented liquors were drugged 
and became the strong liquors of history. The drunk- 
enness of Rome, Greece, Babylon, and other ancient 
empires was the drunkenness caused by the use of fer- 
mented liquors, and the cravings which such liquors 
caused which led to the use of drugged liquors. His- 
tory says : u The use of fermented liquors is the by-way 
which leads down into the valley of drunkenness. 
The brewer-drunkard-makers must destroy the history 
of experience if they wish to maintain their second 
proposition. The graveyard of nations answers their 
foul lie. 

The third defence urged is : 

" It is an attempt to pass, or rather to create, a sump- 
tuary law, v/hich has for its object the restraint of indi- 
vidual rights, and is, therefore, contrary to the principles 
of our Republican institutions." 

Webster defines sumptuary laws to be " such as re- 
strain or limit the expenses of citizens in apparel, food, 
furniture, and the like." If laws prohibiting the manu- 
facture and sale of liquors are sumptuary, then the laws 
pohibiting houses of prostitution, gambling hells, the 
sale of diseased meat, and quarantining small-pox and 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. II9 

yellow-fever are sumptuary. I have no patience with 
men who presume on the ignorance of the people. A 
person who will speak of a law prohibiting the traffic 
in intoxicants as sumptuary, is either an illiterate ass, a 
self-confessed idiot, or a political trickster. 

The fourth defence is : 

" It is an invasion of natural desires.'' 

There is no such thing as a natural desire to drink 
whiskey, because in nature such a thing as whiskey or 
beer is unknown. God never created alcoholic bever- 
ages. You may take corn and pile it up as high as 
heaven, and let it rot to earth — every hour of its de- 
composition test it with the most delicate chemical 
tests, and you will never find whiskey in the process of 
rotting. Place grapes on your office table and let them 
remain until the blue mold has eaten them up, and 
alcoholic wine will not appear in the process of decay. 
God does not rot things that way. Alcohol comes in 
when mechanical force is used to break the starch-cells 
and bring the starch in contact with the juice. You 
must have the starch in connection with the juice when 
this unnatural kind of fermentation takes place. " But," 
objects one, "if God did not create alcoholic beverages, 
He did make the laws that cause the formation of alco- 
hol." Granted. God made iron. He made the laws of 
cohesion and adhesion, but God did not make butcher- 
knives ; and what would you think of the intelligence 
of a man who would prate about a natural appetite for 
butcher-knives ! God created the laws that govern the 
formation of gunpowder, but nowhere in God's universe 
can you find gunpowder existing as the result of nature's 
own work. What would you think of a man who would 
prate about a natural appetite for gunpowder ! A nat- 
ural appetite for something that is unnatural is a thing 
that no man can understand ; hence, you can see, the 
desire is not a natural one. 

Let us see what you mean by the terms natural ap- 
petite or desire. You say: " I have an appetite for liq- 
uor." Appetite is a demand for supplies. In the school, 
in the store, in the office, you use a certain amount of 
muscular force ; then you become hungry. What is 
hunger? A demand for supplies. The body asks you 



120 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

to supply it something oat of which it may make force 
to take the place of the force you have used up. You 
go to the table, eat slowly, masticate the food thor- 
oughly, and when you get up and go away, where is 
your appetite? A demand for supplies, and when the 
supplies are furnished it is satisfied. Enter a drunkery ; 
drink one glass. Do you not want the second, then 
the third, then the fourth, each glass more than the one 
which preceded it ? My liquor friend, you grant me 
the proposition when you say, " I have wzll-powev 
enough to stop ! " You do not use will-power to stop 
eating pork and beans when you have enough. The 
difference is this : When you give a natural appetite 
what it asks for, it is satisfied ; when you give a diseased 
craving what it asks for, it but craves the more. 

If we follow out this thought it will meet another 
sophistry often urged by the liquor men, that the 
liquor business of this country is governed by the 
same laws of political economy that govern the sale 
of the necessaries of life. You ask what they mean. 
They answer : " You must do away with the demand 
and the supply will cease. It is the demand which 
creates the supply." Did you ever hear this statement ? 
There is not a student before me but knows this 
statement of the law is not correct. The true rule of 
political economy is this : In the case of absolute neces-. 
saries the supply is sought after because of the demand, 
but in the case of created luxuries the supply causes 
the demand, or changes a general inclination or desire 
into a demand for the specific luxury which is tempt- 
ing. Let me state it again. In the case of absolute 
necessaries, the supply is created by the demand, but 
in the case of created luxuries the supply creates the 
demand. There is a natural demand for food;' you 
must have it or die. I met a man in Fort McPherson 
who had travelled for four days and eaten nothing but 
a raw rattlesnake. The demand for food is natural and 
must be satisfied. Food being an absolute necessity, 
the supply is sought as the result of the demand. In 
this climate clothes are absolutely necessary to protect 
the body from the inclemency of the weather. Demand 
for these creates the supply. You must have clothes 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 121 

of some kind, and if you fail to procure them, nature 
will supply them in part by causing hair to grow upon 
the body. 

Diamonds are not necessary to man's existence. 
They are a created luxury. A man goes to New York, 
purchases diamonds, and brings them home. Does he 
lock them up in a safe until you come around and tell 
him you want them ? No ; he locks them up during 
the night, and in the daytime places them in the show- 
case, where persons who enter his place may see them. 
Some young ladies enter who have no thought of 
diamonds, and see the rings, pins, brooches, and neck- 
laces. One exclaims, " Nell, come here ! Those gems 
are lovely/' They admire their colors — " I wish I had 
them." What caused that wish ? The presence of the 
luxury. 

What are you thinking about ? Well, I am thinking 
about watermelons. Now, they are not necessaries of 
life. They are luxuries. You will be down here next 
summer. You are not thinking of watermelons. You 
hear the musical cry, " Watermelons ! " As soon as 
you hear it, there will be a demand for the melons. 
" I want one of those watermelons." The demand is 
created by the presence of the melons. Even in a case 
where necessaries are combined with luxuries, this is 
the rule to some extent. Hats of some kind are neces- 
sary in this country. Suppose a milliner has received 
some new Spring hats. Would she place them in a 
closet and lock them up until some lady called and 
told her she wanted one ? Not much ; she would put 
them in the show-case where every lady would see 
them. Ladies are passing : 

" Is it not a beauty?" 

" That's a jewel of a bonnet." 

" And the colors . r — my colors, — I wonder how I would 
look with it on. Let's go and see." 

They go in, and she puts it on and looks at herself ; 
and then she says, " I wish I had it ! " What created 
the wish ? The presence of the bonnet. 

The liquor business of this country comes under the 
same rule. Alcoholic liquor is not an absolute neces- 
sity. Give it the best position you can, and it is a 



122 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

dangerous luxury. Then the presence of it creates the 
demand for it. 

You go down the street — you are not an abstainer, 
neither do you care for a drink. A saloon-keeper has 
a big sign across the street, " Ice-cool lager." The 
presence of the sign, together with the knowledge that 
the beer is there, leads you to go in and get it. If it 
was further away, you would not think of it. Said 
the general manager of the Union Pacific R.R. to a 
friend of mine : " By closing up the saloons near 
our workshops, drunkenness has diminished two-thirds 
among our men.' When the men were passing the 
saloons on their way to and from work, they would 
get a drink. Now, when they have to go three or four 
blocks for it, they do not get it." 

The fifth defence is : 

" If you shut up the saloons they will sell in the 
drug-stores and in holes." 

To meet this it will be necessary for us to examine 
the causes of drunkenness in this country. What 
makes drunkards ? 

A liquor man exclaims, " Treating." Yes, sir, that 
is one of the principal reasons. Boys go into a saloon 
to play billiards — when they are in Rome, they must 
do as Romans do. After playing for a time they go 
up to the bar, turn glasses full, and standing there, 
clink their glasses and drink to each other's health! 
Poets and novelists of old times have thrown around 
the custom of drinking to each other's health a tempt- 
ing sheen of romance. Break up the saloon, and where 
is your treating ? Where will liquor be sold ? In a 
drug-store? Notice a man treating in a drug-store. 
He looks up and down the street, and then sneaks in 
behind the prescription case to get a drink. Is not 
that romantic ? 

But they say it will be sold in cellars. Yes ! a man 
will sneak through an alley-way, down a back stairway, 
into a cellar, where there is a keg of whiskey. He 
finds a tin-cup rusty with the saliva of other men who 
have drunk from it. Is not that a high-toned way of 
drinking? Will it tempt and make drunkards of the 
boys ? 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 1 23 

Another says, " They will carry it in bottles/' Yes; 
but treating with bottles is not specially romantic. A 
wink of the eye leads one into a stall in a barn or 
around behind some building out of sight, where the 
bottle is drawn from the pocket and passed over to the 
friend. He takes a drink and passes it back to the 
owner, who takes a suck off the* same nose. Now, is 
not that tempting, especially if one drinker chews to^ 
; bacco and the other does not ? 

No, gentlemen, when you have broken down the 

lighted bar, when you outlaw this trade, when you 

drive it into holes — old bummers may get it, but the 

Iboys of this country, bright, and brave, and manly, will 

never sneak after something for which they have not 

• learned to care. Said a leading statesman of Maine 

to me, " Old bummers of Maine kept on drinking, but 

we have a generation of boys who have grown up since 

("the Maine law, who know nothing of the use of liquor. ,, 

v Close the saloons, and treating is dead, and the boys 

.are safe. 

The sixth defence is : 
u It will destroy personal liberty.'' 
Xiquor-dealers met in the city of Des Moines, and 
^declared that they were the defenders of personal lib- 
erty in this country, and to-day the liquor interest is 
masoperading as the champion of liberty; and a more 
ridiculous masquerade I never saw. 

Gentlemen, scholars, what is the foundation of lib- 
erty in this country? Your schools, your churches, 
and your universities. The foundation of liberty is in- 
telligence and morality. A drunken and debauched 
people can never maintain a government of the people, 
for the people, and by the people. Liquor-dealers, be- 
fore you step out as the champions of liberty, please 
tell us what you have done to perpetuate liberty in the 
land ? How many schools have you erected ? Where 
are your colleges? How many churches have you 
touilt ? How many hospitals have you founded ? Show 
me a thing you have ever done to make this nation 
better, and grander, and truer. 

But they say : " We have paid taxes." How ? The 
nation wrung it out of you by police officers and inter- 



124 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

nal revenue officers. In South Carolina and Tennessee 
you shot them dead in their tracks, and you would do 
it in the North if you dared. Where has the Ameri- 
can Brewers* Congress ever built a college, or the Dis- 
tillers' Union founded a church ? When have they 
done a thing for liberty in the world ? And yet these 
men, who have only made drunkards and debauched 
the people, step out and claim to be the defenders of 
liberty! My friend, the Hon. John Sobieski, would 
say : u The Goddess of Liberty has always been a 
dear goddess to me. I used to read stories of the days 
of chivalry. All boys and girls love to read such books. 
Recall your boyish ideas of the old heroes. Tall, well- 
formed, brave — such is the ideal knight. As I think 
of these new knights of liberty, the thought comes — 
how are the mighty fallen ! They are not tall, but 
they make up for height by breadth. To-night, ladies, 
your are to go home with your loved ones. Sup- 
pose the ' Goddess of Liberty ' had been on the plat- 
form during the meeting. A beer-wagon drives up 
in front of the hall, and a typical beer knight waddles 
up to the platform, and says : ' If you (hie) please, you 
are (hie) to go home with me/ " 

Think of it ! 

If Liberty has fallen so low that her defenders are 
the class of men who debauch the manhood, and 
womanhood, and civilization of this country, God pity 
such liberty. The idea of these men arrogating to 
themselves the position of the special champions of the 
liberties of this people is absurd, ridiculous, and non- 
sensical. It makes me think of an illiterate church- 
member by the name of Walker, in southern Illinois. 
During a revival where his spiritual strength had been 
renewed, the idea came into his mind that he must 
preach. He called upon the officers of the church, 
and told them that he believed God had given him a 
special call. They expressed some doubts, promised 
to consider his case, and sent him away. A few days 
later he returned, still more fully impressed that it was 
his divine mission to defend the religion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and to turn sinners from the path of 
death. The officers of the church asked him if he had 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 1 25 

received any evidences of a call. He responded : " I 
went home from this yer meetin' troubled an' perplexed, 
an' the rrex' day I went ter visit neighbor Jones on the 
hill. Comin' back late in the evenin' 'cross the pastur, 
the thought come to me that ef God had really called 
me, he oughter make it manifest to me thar. So I 
jest knelt down in a clump of bushes, raised up my 
voice in prayer, and asked God to show me my dooty 
clear. Jest as I was a-prayin', on the stillness broke an 
awful voice, sayin' : ' Go, W-a-alk-er, W-a-alk-er, Walker ! 
— Go, Pr-e-e-a-cher, Pr-e-e-a-cher, P-r-e-a-a-ch-e-r-r-r ! ' 
The officers of the church examined the source of call, 
and found that it was a jackass, which, alarmed at his 
praying, had commenced to bray. For the life of me 
I cannot get rid of the thought that this call of the 
liquor-dealers, as the defenders of liberty, must have 
come from some such source. 

But what is their cry? They say, " personal liberty." 
In other words, they mean sensual or natural liberty. 
Lieber, the great political philosopher, says, in his 
celebrated work on political ethics, as revised by Theo- 
dore D. Woolsey (page 325): 

" This untenable view is another misconception arising out of the 
primary error of a natural state of man and a natural liberty in which 
man is believed to be absolutely without any restraint, except his 
own conscience and understanding, which, however, it would appear, 
must yet be very weak. Civil liberty, therefore, is judged by a 
negative standard. That is, it is believed the less you are required 
to give up of that original and perfect natural liberty, the greater the 
amount of civil liberty. The idea is radically wrong. Liberty, like 
everything else of a political character, necessary and natural to man, 
and to be striven for, arises out of the development of society. Man, 
in that supposed state of natural liberty, which is nothing but a 
roving state, is, on the contrary, in a state of great submission He 
is a slave and servant of the elements. Matter masters his mind. 
He is exposed to the wrongs of every enemy from without, and de- 
pendent upon his own unregulated mind. This is not liberty. It is 
plain barbarism. Liberty is materially of a civil character." 

Again on page 384 : 

"Where men of whatsoever condition — rulers or ruled, those 
that toil or those that enjoy, individually, or by entire classes or 
nations — claim, maintain or establish rights without acknowledg- 
ing corresponding and parallel obligations, there is oppression, 
lawlessness, and disorder, an4 the very ground on which the 



126 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

idea of all right must forever rest — the ground of mutuality or 
reciprocity, whether considered in the light of ethics or natural 
law, must sink from under it. It is natural, therefore, that 
wherever there exists a greater knowledge of right or more intense 
attention to it than to concurrent and proportionate obligation, evil 
ensues. What may there be found a priori is pointed out by history 
as one of its gravest and greatest morals. The very condition of 
right is obligation. The only reasonable obligations consist in rights. 
Since, therefore, a greater degree of civil liberty implies the enjoy- 
ment of more extended acknowledged rights, man's obligations in- 
crease with man's liberty. Let us, then, call that freedom of action 
which is determined and limited by the acknowledgment of obligation, 
liberty ; freedom of action without limitation by obligation, licentious- 
ness. The greater the liberty, the more the duty." 

Unrestrained natural liberty is the enemy of civil 
liberty. Let me illustrate : It was personal liberty that 
enabled Guiteau to send the bullet through the back of 
President Garfield. It was civil liberty which hanged 
him on the 30th of June. Do you sdfe the difference? 
It is personal liberty that would let me meet you on 
the street and knock your brains out with a club ; it is 
civil liberty that would punish me for the crime. 

It is personal or natural liberty which would let a 
tramp outrage your wife or daughter. It is organized 
or civil liberty which would hang him if he did. Civil 
liberty is developed by the restrictions of natural liberty, 
and the development of higher intellectual liberty among 
intelligent men. Go among the barbarian tribes on 
the frontier. One of the tribes which I visited a few 
years ago has very limited civil government. Their 
chief is elected on account of his brute strength. He 
has the force, and he is elected. Property is only held 
by the physical force of the man holding it. They have 
a marriage relation after a fashion. An Indian marries 
a squaw, and she becomes his absolute property. He 
may whip her, knock her down, or kill her. There is 
no punishment. I asked one of their chiefs, Running 
Elk, if there was no punishment for wife murder, and 
he answered, " No, unless her father or brother should 
take it upon himself to avenge her death. ,, " Do they 
ever do that?" I asked. He answered: "No; they 
might want to kill their wives, and their killing him 
would set a bad precedent." 

Come further East, to some tribes of the Missouri 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 1 27 

River, and you will find that civilization and civil lib- 
erty have advanced by the restraint of personal liberty. 
These tribes have property. The marriage relation has 
taken more stability. The Indian may whip his wife, 
but to put her off must go through regular forms. If 
he kill her, he is punished by death or banishment from 
the tribe. Go South where the Cherokees control the 
territory. You will find a class of people nearly as 
intelligent as the people before me. Their property is 
permanent. Civilization has taken the brute Indian — 
very nearly a brute — restrained his personal liberty, 
and compelled him to be a man. Civil liberty is devel- 
oped by the restraint of personal liberty. The vulture 
that flies across our Western plains is individually free 
to steal chickens. The coyote wolf is a type of indi- 
vidual liberty. The buccaneer on the ocean is a 
representative of personal liberty. Jesse James, the 
Missouri outlaw, was the best type of the personal 
liberty asked by liquor men in this country. For 
twenty years he was personally free to rob trains. 
Finally he went down to death under the hand of civil 
government. It might have been a bad way to assas- 
sinate him, but out West the people are glad his 
personal liberty was destroyed. Personal liberty means 
individual or brute liberty. Civil liberty means the 
restraint of personal liberty. I have a legal right 
to fill my mouth with tobacco, and chew, and chew, 
and spit. I do not believe I have the physical and 
moral right. I have a right to chew and spit this way, 
or chew and spit the other way — it is none of your 
business. You will not deny I have that right if I 
am alone on the prairie. I go into a crowd of men 
and exercise the right. I chew and spit, the juice 
goes in one man's face, and in another man's ear. I 
would be knocked down in a minute. As a man 
hits me on the ear, I exclaim : " Is not this a free coun- 
try ? " " Yes." " Have not I a right to spit ? " You 
would teach me that my right to spit ceased where 
your right not to be spit upon began. This arm is my 
arm (and my wife's), it is not yours. Up here I have a 
right to strike out with it as I please. I go over there 
with these gentlemen and swing my arm and exercise 



128 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

the natural right which you have granted ; I hit one 
man on the nose, another under the ear, and as I go 
down the stairs on my head, I cry out : 

" Is not this a free country ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

" Have not I a right to swing my arm? " 

"Yes, but your right to swing your arm leaves off 
where my right not to have my nose struck begins," 

Here civil government comes in to prevent blood- 
shed, adjust rights, and settle disputes. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the idea that any man in this 
community has a right to do wrong, would, if it became 
a controlling principle, destroy any government. When 
Alexander Selkirk was on the island of Juan Fernandez, 
the poet made him sing : 

" I am monarch of all I survey, 

My right there is none to dispute ; 
From the centre all round to the sea, 
I am lord of the fowl and the brute." 

He could stand on his head, go without clothes — do 
as he pleased. If he had tried to do the same thing 
after he had returned to London, he would have been 
in the police-station in ten minutes. 

Liquor men say : " Government has no right to say 
what I shall eat, drink, or wear." Get up and forget to, 
dress yourself some morning. How far would you get 
in this city before the Government would tell you to 
put on clothes? One of you ladies dress yourself in 
men's clothes. How long before the Government will 
tell you to wear appropriate apparel ? It is the duty of 
Government to restrain animal passions, and the cry of 
liquor men for personal liberty is simply a cry of bar- 
barism. Let me show you the outcome of their doc- 
trines as enunciated by their great high-priest, the high- 
priest of personal liberty — John Stuart Mill. I read 
from his works, and I advise you to get them and read 
for yourself, and see what this damnable doctrine of 
the liquor interest of this country means. I read from 
page 58, of the English edition, published in London, 
by Longmans, Green, Reader & Dyer : 

" Fornication, for example, must be tolerated; and 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 129 

so must gambling ; but should a person be free to be a 
pimp or to keep a gambling house ? The case is one 
of those which lie on the exact boundary line between 
two principles, and it is not at once apparent to which 
of the two it properly belongs. There are arguments 
on both sides." 

Then for a whole page he discusses whether the Gov- 
ernment has a right to deal with these vices, and says : 
" There is considerable force in these arguments ; I will 
not venture to decide/' Think of a man whose system 
of morals does not enable him to determine whether 
Government has the right to stop such things. Such is 
the doctrine of the liquor traffic. They would have the 
State become the procurer or agent to gratify the lusts 
and passions of its citizens, even though such gratifica- 
tion, by ruining them, would destroy its own life. Des- 
pots and devils would laugh at such a theory of govern- 
mental functions. If such a theory is adopted in this 
country, on the chaos of American institutions will 
arise the worst despotism the world has ever seen. 
The doctrine of personal sensual liberty is the doc- 
trine of free-lovism, and means the reinstatement of 
lust, passion, and brute force as the governing force of 
the world. 

The remainder of their defence is best answered by 
its absurdity. From their declaration I read : 

1. "These laws have been tried and abandoned as 
failures in many of the States, and to-day, out of thirty- 
eight States they are in force in but six, and are actually 
enforced in none. 

2. " Adopt this amendment and immigration will shun 
our State, as it is already shunning the State of Kansas. 
The rapid development of Iowa will receive a sudden 
check, as no immigrants will wish to live under such a 
tyranny as this amendment imposes." 

It is a failure, yet liquor will be freely sold ! It will 
stop immigration because the immigrants cannot obtain 
liquor, and they will not submit to such an awful 
tyranny ! 

Again I read : 

I. " We believe it is an established fact that the 
attempt of Government to prohibit the sale or purchase 



130 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

of intoxicating drinks sharpens and excites the disposi- 
tion of men to obtain them. 

2. " The fact that the adoption of this prohibitory 
amendment is an act of bad faith on the part of the 
brewing interests — that it practically confiscates our 
property, and makes us bankrupts, seems to have the 
least weight with the leaders in this fanatical and 
reckless crusade/' 

It is going to bankrupt them because it sharpens 
men's appetites and excites the desire to obtain 
liquors ! 

Again I read : 

i. "That experience in Maine and Kansas, under 
the prohibitory laws, shows that it does not decrease 
drunkenness nor drinking. 

2. " If passed, it will confiscate a large amount of 
property which has been built up in the pursuit of a 
legitimate business, and provides for no compensation 
to the owners for the loss. ,, 

Prohibition is a complete and entire failure ; yet it 
destroys the breweries and distilleries ! 

Again I read : 

1. "Wherever tried, prohibition has failed to pro- 
hibit. 

2. " If the amendment shall be voted into the Con- 
stitution, a subsequent law, bristling all over with pains 1 
and penalties, will inevitably be passed to carry into full 
effect the intent of the amendment." 

It will not prohibit ! It will prohibit ! 

These statements are taken from different parts of 
their platform and grouped. If I had a boy of ten 
years who would make such contradictory statements, 
I would send him to the asylum for weak-minded 
children. 

Their last defence is bulldozing — rebellion. Citizens, 
I would not overdraw the picture ! I read from the 
Des Moines declaration of the liquor men : 

" Resolved, That we will use all honorable means to 
defeat said proposed amendments at the polls ; and if 
we are unsuccessful, will resist its unjust and oppres- 
sive provisions by every method known to law. 

"Resolved, That we will never knowingly support 



THE DEFENCE REVIEWED. 131 

for any office or place of trust any one who shall vote 
for this proposed outrage upon our property and rights. 

" Resolved, That the recent election in Ohio, which 
followed the passage of the Pond bill, is only a fore- 
runner of what will occur in this State, if the Repub- 
lican party adheres to its policy of fanaticism as against 
the liberal element. " 

This declaration is fully explained by one of their 
ablest defenders among the press of this State, which 
says: 

" Prohibition is the first step in the direction of 
despotism. 

" If you want to check immigration, vote for the 
amendment. 

" If you want to increase your taxes, vote for the 
amendment. 

" Personal liberty must and shall be maintained in 
impartial Iowa. 

" Imperial Iowa will kick this temperance tomfoolery 
into a cocked hat. 

" If you want to be ruled and ruined by fools and fa- 
natics, vote for the amendment. 

" The Prohibition party is made up of grannies and 
gossips, who have never learned to mind their own 
business. 

" The defeat of the amendment is demanded by 
common-sense. 

" Yes ; and its defeat is demanded by common hon- 
esty. 

" If the dolts and demagogues succeed in se- 
curing THE PASSAGE OF THAT SUM OF ABOMINATIONS 
KNOWN AS THE PROHIBITORY AMENDMENT, THE 
FRIENDS AND DEFENDERS OF PERSONAL LIBERTY WILL 
DEFY THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE ENORMITY. 

" MARK THAT ! " — Sioux City Tribune. 

I have not thought that such threats, intimidation, 
and bulldozing could influence you voters, and only 
mention the statements to show you the utter deprav- 
ity of the liquor traffic and its defenders. The threat 
of political ostracism and assassination is the emptiest 
kind of buncombe. The dram-shop has no political 
power other than as agents to bribe its debauched 



132 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

victims. It is a political pimp and go-between of 
the vilest sort — ever ready to sell itself to the highest 
bidder. 

The threat of rebellion is the only one of any mo- 
ment, and it simply raises the issue whether less than 
five thousand bloated liquor-dealers govern this State, 
or whether the people govern it. This issue you must 
meet and settle. The man is a coward who does not 
meet the defiance of the liquor men, and demonstrate 
the fact that the people govern Iowa. 

Who governs Iowa? is the issue raised by the oppo- 
sition ; and in making up your verdict you are told, 
if you fail to place Iowa in the hands of grog-shops, 
you shall die politically. " Are you men, and suffer 
such dishonor?" No! These men who live in the 
sores of the body politic, as parasites live in the neg- 
lected sores of the beggar, will be washed out by your 
votes on the 27th of June; then — and not till then — 
can we hope for a healing of these loathsome social and 
political sores, or for sound political health and strength 
in the country. 



VII. 



THE QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY 

ANSWERED. 



An Address delivered in the Opera-House at Marshalltown, Iowa, 

June 18, 1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : To-night, as I close the 
case of the people, I want to thank you for your earnest 
attention and evident desire to do justice. 

It is no small matter to change the organic law of a 
State. The verbal change may be small, but the re- 
sults will affect its whole social and business life. Weigh 
the matter calmly, dispassionately. The people have 
the right to amend thejr organic law. The founders 
of the Government provided for such governmental 
changes. I use the word people, because it is the com- 
mon term, not because it is the correct one. This is 
not a Government of the people. It is a Government 
of male voters ; but, as the word people is commonly 
used, I shall continue to use it, and you will understand 
what I mean by it. 

Around the proposition to amend your organic law, 
the opposition have conjured a host of imaginary dan- 
gers to intimidate voters. They have told you that 
this amendment is a blow at the liberties of the peo- 
ple ; that it will take from them certain rights. The 
exact reverse is the truth. It takes rights from the 
Legislature, or rather returns to the people rights which 
years ago they delegated to the Government. The 
citizens have the right to recover any powers they have 
delegated. 

A great writer has said : " Constitutions are the assem- 
blage of those principles which are deemed fundamental 
to the government of a people. They refer either to 
the relation in which the citizen stands to the State at 

(133) 



134 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

large, and consequently to the Government, or to the 
proper delineation of the various spheres of authority." 
This amendment is a change in the delineation of the 
spheres of authority. It proposes to take the authority 
and power to deal with a certain trade from a branch 
of the Government, and return it to the people. 

The rule of construction of the powers of the Gov- 
ernment in the Federal courts is this: Congress may 
pass any law for which an express or implied warrant 
can be found in the written Constitution of the United 
States. If an act is passed by Congress, and you wish 
to ascertain whether it is constitutional or not, you 
must take the Constitution of the United States and 
find in that instrument an express warrant or an im- 
plied warrant for its enactment. If you do not find it 
there, the law is unconstitutional. The Constitution of 
the United States is a restriction on the powers of the 
General Government. 

The rule of construction in State courts is exactly 
the reverse. If you wish to ascertain whether a law 
passed by the Legislature of a State is constitutional, 
you must examine the Constitution of that State and 
find if the Legislature is prohibited from passing it. 
The Constitution of the State simply guarantees to the 
people certain rights, and all power that is not expressly 
reserved to the people in the Constitution, is vested 
in the Legislature and other branches of government 
of the several States. 

In past years the people of the State of Iowa, and 
most of the other States of this Union, have been will- 
ing to trust in the hands of the Legislature the right 
to control the question of the alcoholic liquor trade. 
The people delegated their right to the legislative and 
executive departments of the State. The right to deal 
with the traffic in your State is vested in the Legisla- 
ture composed of representatives elected by the people. 
Years have passed since this grant was made. The 
people have tested the system of legislative control, 
and have become thoroughly satisfied that the Legisla- 
ture of the State is not the place where this power 
should be vested; and now the proposition in this 
State is simply to revoke the power granted to the 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED, 1 35 

Legislature, and reinvest it in the people. It is the 
people stepping out and saying to their representa- 
tives : " Gentlemen, you have not dealt with this ques- 
tion as your constituents desired, and consequently we 
propose to take the power to deal with it out of your 
hands, and hold it in our own." The constitutional 
amendment, instead of taking a right from the people, 
takes a right from the Legislature and vests it in the 
people. The people can at any time amend the Con- 
stitution ; a Legislature can never do so. That is the 
difference. 

You ask why the people of this State are not willing 
to leave this power in the hands of the Legislature ? 
Why they demand that it shall be returned to them, 
that they alone may decide the question ? In 1855 the 
Legislature of your State — a Democratic Legislature, 
by the way — thought it wise to submit to the voters of 
Iowa the question whether a statutory enactment pro-. 
hibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages 
should become a law. The vote of the people was to 
decide the question whether the statute should exist. 
Of course the vote of the people had no effect, and the 
Legislature knew it could not have when they passed 
the law. It was simply asking a popular opinion 
whether it was best to enact this law. After a bitterly 
contested campaign, the people, by an emphatic major- 
ity, said that the statutory prohibition should be a law. 
In obedience to the decision of the people, the Legis- 
lature passed a bill, and it became law throughout Iowa. 
Hardly had this been done when the liquor men went 
to the legislative Solons of Iowa, and said : 

" We want to come back into this State and sell wine 
and beer and lighter drinks." 

" But," said the men in the Legislature, " the people 
have said you shall not come back." The liquor men 
used arguments which were unfair and dishonest ; they 
were not willing to allow the question to be resubmitted 
to the people for a new trial ; they induced the Legis- 
lature to swindle the people out of the law after they 
had rendered their verdict. In accordance with a polit- 
ical coalition, unholy as any ever made in the depths 
of the bottomless pit, the traffic was readmitted to this 



I36 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

State by legislative enactment, in defiance of the peo- 
ple's verdict and vote. 

Therefore, the people of Iowa say to the legislators : 
" Gentlemen, we propose to take from you the power 
to unsettle the question at every session of your body. 
VVe shall take the question wholly into our own hands. 
We shall give prohibition a full, fair, and an honest trial ; 
and then, if we, the voters, believe it to be a failure, we 
shall repeal the constitutional enactment. But it shall 
remain until the voters see fit to repeal it." 

The constitutional change is in favor of the people. 
It is simply the people demanding their right to deter- 
mine this question, instead of allowing it to be deter- 
mined by a few men in legislative halls. 

The question of the guilt of the liquor traffic is now 
admitted. The liquor men do not attempt to justify or 
defend the drinking-places of the State. They admit 
its guilt. I hold in my hand a pamphlet on personal 
liberty, which is now being circulated by the anti-pro- 
hibitionists, and I read : 

11 Herein, the opponents and advocates of prohibitory amendments 
and prohibitory laws agree : 

" 1. ' They agree that drunkenness is an old and great crime, which 
brings with it other crimes — that it is the fruitful source of pain, mis- 
ery, pauperism, and disease. 

" 2. * They agree that drunkenness, when it produces disorder, is 
neither an excuse nor apology for crime, and should be promptly 1 
punished by law. They agree that the adulterators of all liquors 
should be severely punished by law. 

" 3. * They agree that the law should punish all persons who keep 
drunken and disorderly resorts for drunkards, idlers, and criminals.' " 

Remember, this is written by a liquor man. For fear 
you should doubt, I will show you what a villainous 
liar he is, by reading from the last page of his book. 
He says : 

" The sincerity of the whole prohibitory movement may be readily 
measured by the honest comparison of the professions with the prac- 
tices of its leaders and its champions. Only one instance will illus- 
trate the hypocrisy of the prohibitory movement. During the last 
summer, when the late President had fallen by assassination, the 
whole land was filled with grief and stricken with sorrow. The Pres- 
ident had been a minister of the gospel, and the stroke which had fall- 
en with its deadly power upon the Government and the dead man's 
family, was even more keenlv felt bv the Christian Church. Every 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 1 37 

church in the land was draped in mourning ; courts and schools were 
closed during the days of sorrow ; whilst the benevolent societies and 
political parties of the country vied with each other in their expression 
ot horror at the crime, and lamentation for the dead Chief of a free 
people. When the funeral cortege passed from the East to the West, 
thousands of broken-hearted mourners stood with uncovered heads to 
meet the funeral car at its passage, and reverently bow in submission 
to the cruel fate of the nation. Inside of the funeral train, lollowing 
the illustrious dead to his final resting-place, were the chief mourners. 
In the brief period employed in the passage from the East to the 
West (it must have been in bacchanalian revelry) the intoxicating 
drinks consumed by the Government mourners, in a carefully itemized 
account, footed up $1,700, which has been presented to Congress for 
allowance, about $300 of which was for cocktails. These mourners 
were the chief leaders of the great National Prohibition party." 

This money was spent by Democratic and Republi- 
can statesmen ; no member of the National Prohibition 
party was with the funeral escort. 

The first three confessions of the gentleman is the 
people's case. The people say that drunkenness in this 
country is a curse, and that drunkenness is generated 
by the A-B-C school of drunkenness — the licensed dram- 
shop. The liquor men do not deny it. So, after two 
months of trial in your State, and when in about ten 
days the question is to be determined by the voters, 
the liquor men come into court and enter a plea of 
guilty, and only ask that, because of mitigating cir- 
cumstances, the punishment imposed may be high li- 
cense. The issue we are to discuss is not the question 
of their guilt or innocence, because they have pleaded 
guilty. 

These objections of the liquor men have been listened 
to by the jury, and I am asked to mention them. The 
questions have been written and passed to me since I 
came on this platform ; I shall read by number and an- 
swer. They are as follows : 

1st Question. " If the amendment is adopted it will be two years 
before the Legislature will meet, and during that time (the present 
law having been made unconstitutional) there will be free whiskey 
throughout the State, as there will be no penalties to secure an en- 
forcement of the amendment." 

This is urged by the liquor men; and one would 
think, in listening to their talk, that these men are ter- 
ribly alarmed for fear that during a period of two years 



I38 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

they will have a right to sell whiskey without any law 
restraining them. 

To console them, and that they may not be mistaken,, 
I assure them that this will be the ruling of our courts, 
as it has been the ruling of all the higher courts in this 
country ; viz., that the adoption of the constitutional! 
amendment will simply make the license clauses of 
your present act unconstitutional. Your law is prohib- 
itory. It was passed as a prohibitory law. The 
amendment will affect only the explanatory clauses, 
which allow the sale of wine and beer. 

" What will be the result ?" Just as soon as it is, 
officially declared that the amendment is carried, you 1 
will have a prohibitory law in existence in this State 
that is better than the Kansas enactment, for the latter 
is fearfully weak. Your old law will be in force; your 
future legislators may amend the present prohibitory 
law, but it will stand as a law except its license features, 
until your legislators change it. 

The effect of the amendment on the law will be the 
same as though it had been a part of the Constitution 
w r hen the act was passed. The license features of 
your present law will be unconstitutional. The only 
question will be as to penalties for wine and beer. 

2d Question. "Will the amendment be effective without pen- 
alties ?" 

I say, No. There is not a single provision of the 
Constitution that is effective without penalties. 

3d Question. "Will not the life of the amendment exist only in 
the penalties ? " 

I answer to that, No ; and I will show you why, 
when I have read the fourth question, which is : 

4th Question. " Will not the penalties tend to fluctuate with each 
Legislature?" "It is claimed that constitutional law carries more 
force than legislative enactment ; but if the penalties depend upon 
legislative enactment, why the greater force ? " 

These are pertinent questions. To the third question, 
"Will not the life of the amendment depend on its 
penalties ?" I answer, "No"; because all law depends 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 1 39 

-upon public sentiment for its enforcement. The gentle- 
man who puts the question, asks whether the constitu- 
tional amendment will have greater force than statu- 
tory enactment. I answer " Yes," for this reason : If 
the Legislature should pass a statute, it might be the 
opinion simply of the members of the Legislature, 
instead of being the opinion of the people. It might 
be the opinion of one hundred and thirty or one 
hundred and forty men constituting the law-making 
body of your State. An amendment to the Constitu- 
tion, on the contrary, can only be placed there by a 
majority of the people, representing a majority of the 
sentiment of this State ; and when law-breakers know 
that prohibition is not a mere statutory enactment, and 
that a majority of the people of this State are opposed 
to their misdeeds, they will yield ; because no man likes 
to fight majorities. A statutory enactment 'seems to 
have nobody behind it, except the courts. A consti- 
tutional enactment has the people of the whole State 
behind it. Hence, I answer, the life of the constitutional 
amendment is the popular will, not the penalties. The 
life of the amendment is the sentiment shov/n by the 
vote that adopts it. Consequently the constitutional 
amendment must be of greater force than a statutory 
enactment. 

The people having adopted a constitutional amend- 
ment by majority vote, politicians will be exceedingly 
slow to pass any law with penalties which will not carry 
out the expressed will of the people. In Kansas, where 
the amendment was adopted by the people's vote, the 
Legislature passed a law to carry out the will of the 
people, not daring to defy that will. The tendency of 
all law carrying out constitutional provisions is to per- 
manency, because politicians do not like to antagonize 
the people. 

5th Question. "If there is a greater force in constitutional pro- 
vision to combat evils or crimes, why is not murder or other high 
crimes prohibited by constitutional amendment instead of legislative 
enactment ? " 

I say to the friend who wrote this question that 
they are thus treated. The Constitution of your State 



I40 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

guarantees the life and liberty of the citizen, and if 
your Legislature should pass a law licensing murder, it 
would be unconstitutional. Murder, arson, and theft 
are prohibited by constitutional provision, and an 
enactment made to license these things would be a 
direct violation of the property and life guarantees of 
the Constitution, and would be declared unconstitu- 
tional in any court of the United States. The crimes 
named are prohibited by the constitutional guarantee 
of life and property. 

6th Question. "The text of the amendment makes it a crime to 
sell within the State, but cannot prohibit the sale outside the State. 
In other words, Iowa men must not poison their immediate neigh- 
bors, but can poison Kansas without penalty. Would not such a law 
as a fundamental principle of our Government be dishonorable, incon- 
sistent, and un-Christian ? " 

The questioner makes an incorrect statement, and 
on the incorrect statement bases his question. The 
amendment prohibits the manufacture and sale of 
liquors. The statement is one being urged by liquor 
men in all parts of the State. One is reminded that 

"When the Devil was sick, 

The Devil a monk would be ; 
When the Devil was well, 
The Devil a monk was he." 

The statement, as I said, is false, but if it is true I* 
would vote for the amendment. If a rattlesnake were 
to crawl into my house, and my boy was playing near 
it, if I could not kill it, but could drive it out of doors, 
I would drive it out. If he bit my neighbor's boy I 
should regret that he did so, but charity begins at 
home. I should protect my own home first ; and when 
Iowa has protected her own homes, let the gigantic 
temperance sentiment of this State carry the reform to 
every State of this nation, until the Constitution of the 
United States prohibits the traffic in the entire republic. 

7th Question. ' ' Could our Government exceed its authority by any 
act of the majority of its voters ? " 

I answer: The Government is the people, or the 
voters. All political power is inherent in the people. 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. I4I 

The Constitution of the United States reads: "We, 
the people." The Government has the right to do 
anything it is not prohibited by the Constitution from 
doing. In making the Constitution a majority of the 
people is supreme. They can do anything they please. 
They may establish a state, a church, or a despotism. 
Therefore, the Government does not exceed its authority 
in obeying any " act of a majority of voters " expressed 
in their Constitution. The only safety for our liberties 
is the intelligence and morality of the people. For this 
reason the drinking-place should be destroyed, on ac- 
count of its power to corrupt and debauch the people. 

8th Question. " If our Government cannot exceed its authority as 
represented by a majority of its voters, why may not the Government 
prescribe the form of religious worship as well as to say what a man 
shall eat or drink ? " 

If the people are ever foolish enough to do this, they 
can do it, and you cannot hinder them, because in this 
country the people are the Government. If this peo- 
ple shall determine that a certain kind of religion shall 
be the religion of the State, then that will be the es- 
tablished form of religious worship ; and the only guar- 
antee against such a policy is to educate the people so 
that they will not be foolish enough to adopt it. The 
only safety for the Government is the intelligence and 
morality of the individual citizen. The safety of the 
principles of liberty is to educate the people to do 
right, and destroy every institution that educates them 
to do wrong. 

But this question is unfair, inasmuch as it supposes 
a falsehood as a premise. Prohibitory liquor laws in 
nowise say what a man shall eat or what he shall 
drink. They simply aim to protect society from the 
pernicious influence of trade, which is a social insti- 
tution. In no respect do they aim to interfere with 
the private liberties of the individual until those pri- 
vate liberties create public nuisances. The rights 
inherent in the people to say what is, or what shall 
be, the form of government in this country, exist to- 
day, and will in nowise be altered or changed by the 
passage of this amendment. The aim of the prohibi- 



142 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

tionists is simply to destroy in this country all insti- 
tutions which have a tendency to debauch the morality 
and the intelligence of the inhabitants, and thereby 
jeopardize our liberties by corrupting the fountain-head 
of our liberties — the people. 

9th Question. "The educational methods and restrictive measures 
in promoting temperance should go hand in hand. The restrictive 
should not be at the expense of the educational, from which all true 
reforms must come." 

The question states the theory of every prohibition- 
ist ; the only error being in leaving the inference that 
restrictive measure are not educational. All laws edu- 
cate. 

10th Question. "Will not the conflict of society produced by ef- 
forts to enforce extreme measures require so much attention that the 
educational forces of temperance, as well as of other social evils, 
will be lost sight of ? " 

The temperance organizations in this country that 
are paying the most money to push on the educational 
temperance work are fighting hardest for prohibition. 
The Good Templars, whom I have the honor to repre- 
sent in my own State as their chief officer, and in 
the world as chairman of their literature committee, 
have always fought for prohibition, but with that work 
they have always pressed reformatory and educational 
effort. To-day they are paying many thousands of dol- 
lars to circulate literature among the freedmen of the 
South, and none of the literature is prohibition litera- 
ture per se. The Good Templars pay men to go up 
and down among the colored people and teach them 
the A-B-C of temperance. 

In this State to-day, this same order of practical re- 
formers are seeking to put text-books into the schools 
to teach the principles of physiology and temperance ; 
and they are circulating documents, not only upon the 
prohibitory phase, but every other phase of the reform. 
The moral suasionists who are fighting prohibition do 
not give a dollar for the educational work. Show me 
a moral-suasion, anti-prohibition organization in this 
State or in America that has given a thousand dollars 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 143 

in the past year to teach temperance to the people, 
and I will show you a white crow. The organizations 
that have done most to educate the people, the most 
to save our boys, the most to pick up the drunkards, 
are those that say: '" We will step down in the gutter 
and with one hand lift out the drunkard, while with 
the other we vote to close the place that made him a 
drunkard. " 

If those who claim to work most for moral suasion 
ever did anything for educational temperance, then I 
would see sense in the question. Instead of working 
for temperance they remain idle during the year, and 
as soon as the fight begins, instead of combating the 
liquor traffic, they are out with clubs to fight temper- 
ance men. I have learned to doubt the temperance 
principles of a man who never does anything for the 
cause, but who is continually attacking its friends 
and lending aid and comfort to the enemy. In the 
late war men who gave aid and comfort to the enemy 
were called " Copperheads/' I don't know what you 
would call these, for they are of a meaner and viler 
type. "By their works ye shall know them." 

Who are the so-called moral-suasion temperance men 
working for and associating with to-day? Take the 
history of the ministerial apostates who are fighting 
prohibition in this State, and find what they have done 
for temperance within the past year. How many 
drinking men have they picked up? How many tem- 
perance meetings have they held ? How many temper- 
ance text-books have they circulated ? How many tem- 
perance papers have they supported ? " By their fruits 
ye shall know them." A man who receives pay from 
the drunkard-makers for preaching a temperance doc- 
trine which will make every liquor-seller and drunkard- 
maker shout " Amen " is a fraud, and had better own 
that he gets pay from the devil direct. 

nth Question. " Can Temperance Organizations hope to legislate 
men into habits of sobriety ? " 

The only men who ever said you could, are the men 
who advocate license. Temperance men do not pro- 
pose to legislate a man sober ; they propose to legislate 



144 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LTQUOR TRAFFIC. 

men out of the business of making men drunk. " Li- 
cense men to make drunkards, hire officers to arrest 
the drinkers, build prisons in which to instruct them not 
to drink,'* is the license advocate's plan. 

A poor man goes into a dram-shop and gets drunk. 
In the State of Nebraska I have never known a rich 
man to get drunk. " Why/' you say, " that is strange ! " 
The statutes of Nebraska make drunkenness a misde- 
meanor. I have met men with silk hats and canes, 
who could not walk without staggering. I thought they 
were drunk. I looked in the police court record the next 
morning, and I saw they were not arrested. I have 
seen laboring men who could walk with little difficulty. 
I looked in the police court record the next morning, 
and found that they were drunk. I do not know how 
it works in Iowa, but in the State where I live, the 
young snobs, who never do an honest day's work, who 
live on their papas until they find a girl who is fool 
enough to marry them, and then live on her papa, 
never get drunk. If they are found in a condition 
resembling drunkenness, by the police, they are helped 
home. If they cannot be taken home, they will be 
helped to a hotel, and their heads sponged. If the man 
who works gets drunk, he is always punished. Do you 
suppose, as a matter of fact, that a policeman would 
arrest a man who has money ? The workmen of this 
country have long enough stood by this system which 
makes it a crime for a poor man to do what a rich man 
may do with impunity. The poor man is arrested by 
the police officer, and put into the " cooler." The next 
morning he is brought before the police court, and 
what is the result ? The saloon-keeper got half of his 
money, the police officer, through the police magistrate, 
gets the other half, and the poor devil has not a cent 
left, and the license people cry : " Served him right ; he 
ought to have been punished." 

Come with me to some wretched part of your cities, 
and I will show you the ragged form of that man's wife, 
show you his boy and girl with naked feet, and after 
you have seen them in their wickedness and poverty, 
tell me who is being punished. 

One night I sat in my office, preparing a brief — it was 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. I45 

very late, about three o'clock in the morning — and there 
came a knock. I went to the door, and there stood one 
of our city policemen. I asked : 

" What do you want ? " 

He said : " I went down to the coal-yards. I was 
sent down there to look after the coal. As I went out 
to the cars I heard some one moaning in one of those 
little wretched shanties, and when I was coming back 
I knocked at the door, and was admitted ; and I tell 
you, Mr. Finch " — and the tears came into his eyes — 
" I think they are starving ! I built a fire for them. 
Just think," said he, " of the poor things starving to 
death on this bitter cold night ! " The words came 
direct from his big Irish heart. 

I said to him : " Jim, where did you get the coal?" 

He said it was none of my business. " I came up 
town, Mr. Finch," he said; "the restaurants are all 
closed ; I saw a light in your window, and thought you 
would help me." 

I said : " Certainly." 

I went home and called my wife. A basket was 
packed. My wife dressed and went with me. It was 
a bitter night in December. We went down the streets 
of that city, out into that wretched section, and went 
into that home. You ladies have, perhaps, seen such 
homes. There was no need of words to tell that they 
were suffering. There sat the poor woman in her 
wretchedness. My wife asked what she could do for 
her. She straightened up and said : 

" Mrs. Finch, I am not a beggar. I do not want you 
to give me anything. If you will just lend it to me I 
will pay it all back to you some time. If I had some 
clothes and shoes I could take care of my own babies. 
It is hard, oh, so hard, to be here with such clothes 
that I cannot go out in the street, and the baby dying 
in my arms ! " 

I thought so too. I asked her where her husband 
was. I knew him to be one of the best stone-masons 
in the city. I knew that, because he had done some 
work for me a short time before. She said he had 
been put in the city jail for eight days, to serve out a 
sentence for drunkenness. " Punish the man who gets 



146 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

drunk ! " The law had done that, and left his wife and 
babies to starve and freeze in mid-winter. 

Any system of law that punishes the wife and chil- 
dren for the sins of the father is a disgrace to a civil- 
ized people. If it is right to license a man to make 
men drunk, it is right to get drunk; and a nation that 
licenses the manufacturer of drunkards, and then pun- 
ishes men for doing exactly what it has licensed a man 
to make them do, is a long way from civilization of the 
highest type. 

Remove temptation by the police power of the State, 
and educational methods will begin to influence the 
individual. Moral suasion will never have a fair 
chance until the State has branded liquor-selling as a 
crime. 

12th Question. " Men are like hogs. You can coax them, but you 
cannot drive them. Will not the amendment make men worse ? " 

I have always doubted the theory of evolution from 
monkeys, and am not inclined to admit that reasoning 
men are like unreasoning hogs. The only evidence of 
the truth of the statement is the character and habits 
of the liquor men. A traffic that estimates man, 
" created in the image of his Maker," as a hog, ought 
to die. 

Men can be driven. The late war proves it. Men 
who are in the wrong, who know they are wrong, are 
the greatest cowards in the world. 

The amendment is reasonable and right. The peo- 
ple of Iowa are a reading, thinking, reasonable people. 
They will see the justice of the action and sustain it. 
The amendment will close up the human hog-pens, and 
the " men like hogs M will go with them. 

13th Question. " If you say a man shall not do a thing, he will 
desire to do it. Will not the tendency of the amendment be to lead 
men to desire to break it ? " 

This is practically the last question in another form. 
If the statement made is correct, statesmen have always 
been in error. No laws should be passed prohibiting 
theft, because if you say a man shall not steal, it will 
excite a desire in him to steal. No laws should be 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. I47 

passed prohibiting crime, because if you say he shall 
not commit crime, he will desire to transgress. The 
correct way, according to this " hog theory," would 
be, to pass a law saying a man must steal, that 
he shall be fined if he does not steal. Such a lav/ 
would excite the hoggish propensities of man, and he 
would not steal, simply because the law said he must. 
Laws should be passed saying men shall commit 
crime, with adequate penalties to force men to obey. 
Such laws would excite the hoggish propensity to dis- 
obey, and no crime would be committed. Not only 
have parents and statesmen blundered, but God him- 
self was mistaken in thinking human beings reasonable 
beings instead of brutes, if this saloon theory is cor- 
rect. I only wonder how any person dares so insult 
an audience. Man is not a hog. He thinks and rea- 
sons. He is eminently an ethical being. The question 
and statement are not founded on fact, but suppose a 
condition of things which never did and never can 
exist. 

14th Question. " Is not temptation necessary to the development 
of moral character ? " 

The question implies that evil is an educator of the 
moral forces. If temptation develops character, the 
Government ought to license gambling hells, so that 
the boys, by being tempted to gamble, would become 
honest citizens. If temptation develops character, the 
Government ought to license houses of ill-fame, and 
libertines, so that your daughters, by being tempted, 
would become virtuous women. Would you wish to 
try so dangerous an experiment ? The dual nature of 
man must always be taken into consideration in the 
discussion of such problems. The intellectual, God- 
nature is always at war with the passionate, brute- 
nature. The highest type of manhood is developed 
when the passionate or brute forces are held in check 
by the intellectual nature, and made to act as the mo- 
tive power to accomplish grand deeds. The lowest 
type of manhood is developed when the intellectual 
forces are the slaves of the brute-nature, compelled to 
devise ways and means to gratify lust and passion. 



I48 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

The associations of childhood develop one or the other 
of these forces. Like produces like. Throw around 
a child influences which develop the intellectual nature, 
and the chances are in favor of his being a manly man. 
Throw around a child influences which develop the 
brute or passionate nature, and the chances are in favor 
of his being a bad man — a criminal. " Evil communica- 
tions corrupt good manners " is an old saw, the truth of 
which no sane man will dispute. One might as well 
hope to develop a rare rose by taking it from the sun- 
light and placing it in the dark, damp cellar, as to ex- 
pect to develop noble, pure manhood and womanhood 
by surrounding the child with the noxious atmosphere 
of vice and crime. 

No man ever understood human nature as the Master 
who taught us to pray, " Lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil." 

3 5th Question. " Will not the passage of the amendment make the 
temperance question a political question ? " 

Politics is the science of government. Politics is that 
division of ethics which deals with the government of 
a State ; the preservation of its prosperity, safety, and 
peace ; the protection of citizens ; the preservation and 
improvement of their morals. Any institution, trade, 
or custom which affects the safety, prosperity, or peace 
of a State, or which injures the morals of the citizens, 
is political. In a government of the people, by the 
people, any trade which affects the people injuriously, 
affects the Government, composed of the people, inju- 
riously, and its regulation or destruction belongs prop- 
erly to the science of government — politics. The 
school and the church influence the unit of the political 
structure — the citizen ; and to that extent are political 
institutions. Every sermon or lesson which influences 
the life and conduct of the citizen has a good or bad 
influence on the State, and to that extent' is political. 
The old cry of political demagogues, "Keep temper- 
ance and religion out of politics," is a sample of stupid 
ignorance boiled down. 

No other institution in America exerts the terrible 
influence on political action that is exerted by the liq- 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 1 49 

uor traffic. The questions, "What can the Govern- 
ment do with the traffic ?" " How can the Govern- 
ment destroy the pernicious influence of this traffic ? " 
are questions which must be determined by political 
action. The laws passed to regulate and restrain these 
influences are political measures devised to meet the 
issues presented by the liquor traffic. The question is 
a political question now, and it will remain so until it 
is settled by political action. 

If the questioner means to ask whether it will be- 
come a partisan question, I answer, " It will." In a 
Government like ours, parties are political machines to 
work out political problems. The Government is a 
ruling by the party in power, and until the Govern- 
ment — the party in power — pronounces in favor of 
the enforcement of the law, it will be openly vio- 
lated. With one political party openly opposed to 
the law, and the other political party a coward, prohi- 
bition will be between the " devil and the deep sea," and 
will remain largely a dead letter on your statute-books. 
Unless one of the present parties shall, in its State 
and National platform, declare in favor of passing and 
enforcing prohibition, a party will be formed which will 
carry the measure to victory. Boobies in the science 
of government may prate about settling this as a non- 
partisan question, but persons who have had experience 
in public life, who know what lever is necessary to move 
great dangers from, the path of government, will not 
indulge in such idle fancies. 

16th Question. "What is your opinion of the success of prohibi- 
tion as tried in Maine?" 

Prohibition has been a success wherever tried. It 
is truly a wonder that it has, for it has never had a 
fair trial. The State has branded the business of mak- 
ing drunkards as a crime. The influence of the General 
Government has always antagonized State action. The 
State has prohibited the manufacture and sale of liquor. 
The General Government has always, by its power to 
regulate inter-State commerce, licensed the importation 
of liquors into the State. The State has prohibited the 
sale of liquor. The General Government has said to 



I50 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

liquor outlaws : " Pay into the treasury of the United 
States twenty-five dollars a year, and you may violate 
the State law by selling the liquors. Congress has 
licensed you to import, and the agents of the United 
States will remain silent, wink at your crime, and let 
the State punish you if it can." Prohibition will only 
be tested when the General Government ceases to be a 
partner, or rather beneficiary, of the liquor traffic ; when 
the National Constitution shall prohibit the import- 
ation, manufacture, and sale of alcoholic liquors ; when 
the political party controlling the nation is in favor of 
prohibition honestly enforced. 

In the face of such disadvantages, prohibition has 
succeeded. Let us examine the evidence, to see if this 
is not true. 

Remember the rule of law to be : " Hearsay evidence 
is uniformly held incompetent to establish any specific 
fact, which, in its nature, is susceptible of being proved 
by witnesses who can speak from their own knowledge." 
The learned author who lays down the rule says: "That 
this species of testimony supposes something better, 
which might be adduced in the particular case, is not 
the sole ground of its exclusion. Its extrinsic weak- 
ness, its incompetency to satisfy the mind as to the 
existence of the fact, and the frauds which may be prac- 
ticed under its cover, combine to support the rule that 
hearsay evidence is totally inadmissible." 

The prohibitory law of Maine is # on trial. You are 
the jury. The evidence produced must be of a char- 
acter that would be received in a court of justice. The 
enemies of the law open their side of the case with the 
statement that it is a failure. They are asked to pro- 
duce their witnesses. They offer newspaper articles writ- 
ten by irresponsible, anonymous correspondents, and 
put men upon the stand to swear : " I heard it did not 
prohibit." Would such evidence be admissible to prove 
anything? In a court it would be rejected as hearsay. 

Cross-examine one of these witnesses : 

" You stated prohibition was a failure in Maine. Tell 
the jury what you know about it." 

" I think I read about it in a paper," 

"When?" 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 151 

" This morning." 

" What paper was it published in ? " 

" The Chicago Tribune." 

" Was it an original article or a copied one?" 

" It was copied from the New York Sun." 

" From what source did the Sun get its information ? " 

" I do not know." 

" Do you wish to swear that you know anything 
about the results of prohibition in Maine ? " 

" Only what I read." 

" That is not an answer to the question. Do you 
know anything about it ? " 

" No." 

The prohibitionists now call United States Senator 
Frye, of Maine. 

" Mr. Frye, where do you reside ?" 

" In the State of Maine." 

" Do you frequently visit different parts of the 
State?" 

"'I do." 

"Are you familiar with the practice in your State 
courts ? " 

" I am." 

"And know something of the moral and social con- 
dition of the people in Maine ? " 

" I do." 

" Tell the jury how the prohibitory law has affected 
your State." 

" I can, and do, from my own personal observation, 
unhesitatingly affirm that the. consumption of intoxi- 
cating liquors is not to-day one-fourth so great as it was 
twenty years ago ; that, in the country portions of the 
State, the sale and use have almost entirely ceased ; 
that the law itself, under a vigorous enforcement of its 
provisions, has created a temperance sentiment which 
is marvellous, and to which opposition is powerless. 
In my opinion, our remarkable temperance reform of 
to-day is the legitimate child of that law." 

Call the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. Mr. Hamlin is 
asked the questions which qualify him as a witness, and 
testifies : 

il I concur in the statements made by Mr. Frye. Of 



152 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

the great good produced by the prohibitory liquor law 
of Maine, no man can doubt who has seen its results. 
It has been of immense value. " 

Call James G. Blaine. He is qualified as a witness, 
and testifies : 

" The people of Maine are industrious and provident, 
and wise laws have aided them. They are sober, earn- 
est, and thrifty. Intemperance has steadily decreased 
in the State, since the first enactment of the prohibitory 
law, until now it can be said with truth that there is no 
equal number of people in the Anglo-Saxon world, 
among whom so small an amount of intoxicating liquor 
is consumed, as among the six hundred and fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants of Maine." 

The list is continued until every leading public man 
in Maine has testified, and each swears to the same 
thing. The records of the courts, prisons, and alms- 
houses are offered to corroborate these witnesses and 
the case is given to you. 

Suppose in a case involving five hundred dollars the 
same class of witnesses had been called — for whom 
would you give a verdict ? Would you believe the 
newspaper clippings and idle stories by interested par- 
ties, or disinterested witnesses like Frye, Hamlin, and 
Blaine ? A question of veracity is raised by the testi- 
mony. Either the stories offered by the liquor men 
are false, or Frye, Blaine, Hamlin, Perham, Dingley, 
and others, lie. In determining which evidence is to be 
believed, you must stop and see who has reason for 
lying. If prohibition is a success, it destroys the liquor 
business. If the people in your State can be made to 
believe prohibition a failure, and by such belief be led 
to defeat the amendment, the liquor will continue ; 
hence the liquor-dealers have a financial reason for 
lying. What reason has Mr. Blaine for testifying 
falsely in this case ? Will he gain anything financially 
by so doing ? No. Will he advance his political inter- 
est by so doing ? No. The same is true of the other 
witnesses called by the prohibitionists. If the evidence 
in that case is taken and considered as it would be in 
a court of justice, the verdict must be, " Prohibition is a 
success in Maine." 



QUESTIONS ASKED BY THE JURY ANSWERED. 1 53 

The evidence which the liquor men bring from Kan- 
sas is of the same character as that brought against the 
law in Maine. The prohibitionists bring St. John and 
other State officers who testify to the success of the 
law. In addition, I wish to call your attention to the 
admissions of the liquor men themselves. They are 
the parties in interest and their admissions may certain- 
ly be accepted as evidence. My talented friend, Col. 
Frank J. Sibley, wishing to ascertain from the liquor 
men themselves how the law was working, requested a 
friend to write, at his dictation, to a number of ex- 
liquor-sellers asking what were the chances to start a 
saloon in Kansas. Let me read one answer : 

"Clay Center, Kansas, June 10, 1882. 

" Dear Friend : — I write you a few lines to let you know that \ 
received your letter a few days ago. You don't want to come to 
Kansas to start a saloon unless you want to get busted. Kansas is a 
hell of a country. I just laid out four weeks in jail for selling beer, 
and I got enough of it. Don't come to Kansas to start a saloon. 

" Joe Montel." 

Another, written in German, translated, reads : 

" Beloit, Kansas, May 21, 1882. 

"Your letter I have received, and as you require me to let you 
know what the prospects for selling beer and wine, — answer, none at 
all to begin a saloon, because the temperance people will not let you 
sell anything. John Eberle." 

I hold in my hand copies of letters received by Mr. 
Sibley from ex-liquor-sellers in eleven different towns 
and cities of Kansas, all making substantially the same 
statements. 

In view of all the facts can I do other than answer, 
PROHIBITION IS A SUCCESS? 

Gentlemen, voters, that is our case. Take it, and as 
a jury, bound by the most sacred obligation — your 
honor as citizens — pass upon the evidence and argu- 
ments. The evidence in regard to the guilt of the 
traffic is not contradicted. No attempt is made by the 
liquor advocates to explain. The evidence all says, 
" The liquor traffic is guilty "; and I have no doubt what 
will be your verdict. 

To you, then, we submit our indictment. We sub- 



154 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

mit their threats, and our evidence. We submit their 
blackguardism, false assertions, bulldozing, and defiance 
of law ; our proofs uncontradicted and undeniable ; — 
and we ask you, citizens, voters, to render a verdict 
which shall stay this foul curse. Prayers, tears, and 
persuasion have been tried ; but the lecherous, licentious 
traffic still destroys the youth, manhood, and virtue oi 
the land. 

Richelieu, the French Cardinal, whose niece was pur- 
sued by like bold and shameless enemies, plucked from 
his breast a cross, and drawing the circle of the Church 
of Rome around her, hurled in their faces the defiance : 

" Mark where she stands ! 
Around her form I draw the awful circle of our solemn Church. 
Step but a foot within that holy ground, 
And on thy head — yea, though it wore a crown — 
I launch the curse of Rome." 

Gentlemen, all other remedies have failed. We ask 
you to draw the protecting circle of the Constitution 
around our homes, and say to this " black death/* 
" Thou shalt not cross these thresholds/' 



VIII. 
THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 

An Address delivered in Beecher's Hall, Detroit, Mich., March 26, 

1887.* 

Ladies and Gentlemen: For years the question 
of what is the correct policy of Government in dealing 
with the alcoholic liquor traffic has agitated this State. 
It has been discussed in the pulpit and upon the plat- 
form, written about in the press, prayed about in the 
prayer-meeting, and sworn about in the political cau- 
cuses. At last the Legislature of Michigan in its wis- 
dom has seen fit, by proposing an amendment to its or- 
ganic law, to refer this whole question to the voters for 
their decision on the 4th day of April next. The ques- 
tion involved in this submission is the existence or non- 
existence of a great traffic. Last Monday night in the 
Opera-House in this city a mass meeting was addressed 
by prominent speakers in opposition to the proposed 
prohibitory amendment, and I have been asked by 
leading citizens to come here to-night and reply to 
the statements made by the learned gentlemen who 
addressed that meeting. 

First, let me call your attention to the difference in 
the conditions under which the two meetings are held. 
As I have already stated, the issues involved in this 
campaign are questions affecting the existence of a 
great business — a business in which thousands of men are 
employed and in which millions of dollars are invested. 
I hardly need stand before an audience of this character 
and urge that questions involving such interests should 
be discussed calmly and investigated intelligently. 

One of the speakers at the Monday night meeting, 
the Hon. Charles W. Jones, from the United States 

* x "Mr. Finch had been laboring in Michigan, with other workers, 
for the Prohibitory Amendment. At an anti-prohibition meeting held 
in Detroit on Monday, March 21st, speeches in opposition to the 
Amendment were delivered by the Hon. D. Bethune Duiheld, a lead- 
ing lawyer of the city ; Prof. Kent, of Ann Arbor University Law 
School, and United States Senator Jones, of Florida. Mr. Finch was 
requested by the Amendment Campaign Committee to reply. This 
he did on the following Saturdav night, to an immense audience. — Ed. 

(155) 



i$6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Senate, in his speech asserted : " This is not a sentimen- 
tal age ; this is eminently a practical age ; and I am sure 
there are no more practical people in the world than 
the people of the State of Michigan." His experience 
along sentimental lines in this State will preclude me 
from challenging his judgment, and I am sure if he has 
reached this conclusion, the fair State of Florida will 
not long be without a second Representative in the 
Senate of the United States. If, by leaving his post in 
the Senate and devoting his time to sentiment in De- 
troit, he has failed to make the people of the State of 
Michigan sentimental, I am sure they are not a senti- 
mental people, but are fully ready and duly competent 
to discuss and settle an issue of so great importance as 
the question of prohibiting the alcoholic liquor traffic. 
The advocates of the amendment simply ask for a full 
and fair investigation of all the facts which may be 
brought forward during this campaign. In a govern- 
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people, 
freedom of speech, freedom of investigation, and free- 
dom of action is the only guarantee of wise and con- 
servative legislation. With this thought I do not pro- 
pose to challenge the intelligence, the motives, or the 
conscience of any man who votes against this amend- 
ment, and I only regret that the opposition have 
deemed it wise, by systematic organization, to threaten 
to ruin the business of any man who dares speak or 
write or vote for this amendment. Free America is 
reaching a dangerous point when the Strohs, the Ru- 
offs, the Goebels, before they can speak the American 
language, may say to American business men, " You 
shall not examine, discuss, or determine matters affect- 
ing the policy of the State. " 

The meeting on Monday night was held under the 
boycotting pressure of the saloons of this city. A 
prominent business man who signed the call for that 
meeting informed me to-day that at the time of the 
signing he did not read the call, had no knowledge of 
the statements that it contained, and really had little 
thought of what the meeting meant until he saw the 
call in print, and said, " I should not have signed it had 
not my business interests been threatened/' I submit 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 157 

that any trade or institution whose only defence is boy- 
cotting, bulldozing, and intimidation is entitled to very 
little sympathy at the hands of intelligent men. 

I regret veiy much that the gentlemen who addressed 
the meeting on Monday night saw fit to avoid the main 
issue involved in this contest because it must inevitably 
create the impression they could not or dare not meet 
it ; and, in order that we may intelligently consider all 
the points raised by them, let me examine the real issue 
and state the object and the purpose of the prohibition- 
ists of this State. This is made doubly necessary by 
the speakers in the previous meeting placing in the 
mouths of prohibitionists words which they never used, 
and making them assume positions which they never 
maintained. 

All the speakers distinguished themselves in demol- 
ishing a man of straw of their own creation. Prof. 
Kent said, " The prohibitionists say we are in favor ®i 
prohibition, though the result should be that whiskey 
should be entirely free." In all fairness the learned 
professor should have stated what prohibitionist used 
such an expression and where it was used. It is not an 
honorable act to manufacture expressions to place in 
the mouths of opponents. I say to Prof. Kent that 
prohibitionists have made no such statement. Prohibi- 
tionists attack taxation because under taxation or license 
whiskey is free, and they ask for prohibition because in 
the light of experience they know that prohibition does 
and can prohibit. 

The proposed amendment simply operates as an in- 
dictment to bring the liquor business into the court for 
the people and place it on trial for crimes against soci- 
ety and government. There are but two ways in our 
Government for trying institutions of this class — the 
one autocratic, by the Legislature, the other demo- 
cratic, by the people. The Legislature of this State 
might have passed a prohibitory law outlawing the liq- 
uor business, but such a law would have been the opin- 
ion of a majority of the members, and would have 
been entitled to the respect accorded to the judgment 
and conscience of that number of men. The cry would 
have been at once raised that it was in advance of pub- 



158 THE PEOPLE vL THE LIQUOR TRAFi'iC. 

lie sentiment, that the people were not educated up to 
the position, and the liquor-sellers, using these cries, 
would have organized to defy the statute and to con- 
tinue their business in violation of law. The Legisla- 
ture, in my judgment, chose the correct method when 
they referred the whole question to the people. Con- 
stitutional amendment is the American method of rev- 
olution. The provision for a peaceable change in the 
principles underlying our Government provides for a rev- 
olution by ballots, instead of a revolution by bullets, and 
when Mr. Duffield steps out of his way to impugn the 
intelligence, the honesty, the integrity, and the con- 
science of the Legislature by saying " Political maneu- 
vering and tactics rather than an honest opinion on 
the part of two-thirds of the Legislature that this 
amendment is called for, is the secret of its submis- 
sion, " he weakens his case by introducing special 
pleading to justify this attack. When he says: "We 
recall the fact also that in 1868 an amendment was 
submitted to the people prohibiting license of the sale 
of liquor as a beverage and it was defeated by a ma- 
jority of 13,000 votes," and forgets to state that the 
clause prohibiting the license of the sale of liquor as a 
beverage was in the old Constitution, which it was pro- 
posed to overturn by the new one at the same election, 
and that the new Constitution was defeated by 39,000 
votes, he must think that the old people of this State 
have short memories and that the young people do not 
read history. And when he stated that in 1876 "the 
people struck out from our present Constitution the 
old equivocal clause forbidding the license of liquor- 
selling," and neglects to state that the Supreme Court 
of the State, by its decisions, sustaining tax laws, had 
made the clause utterly worthless, so that it was voted 
against by temperance men, he leaves the position of a 
lawyer and descends to the level of a pettifogger. 
Should the Legislature have submitted the amend- 
ment ? For years the people of this State have dis- 
cussed the relation of the liquor traffic to our free gov- 
ernment and civilization. Time and again the Legis- 
lature has been petitioned to submit this question to 
the people ; a political party casting 25,000 votes at 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 59 

the last election has been organized on this issue alone ; 
and you must admit that if there was ever a question 
which circumstances justify submitting to the people, 
for their examination and final determination, it is the 
question of what shall be done with the alcoholic 
liquor traffic in the State of Michigan. But all side 
issues are out of place in this discussion. The fact is 
that the amendment has been submitted, and that on 
the 4th of April the question of its adoption or its re- 
jection will be settled. The issue involved is the life 
or the death of the drunkard-making traffic. The busi- 
ness of liquor-selling and making drunkards is on trial, 
not the men who are in the business. The issues raised 
are not personal issues. If there is any liquor-seller 
in Detroit who labors under the delusion that he is of 
importance enough to have this temperance movement 
aimed at him, he has a very much better opinion of 
himself than we have. If you could catch every 
liquor-seller in the State of Michigan to-night, tie 
him hand and foot and drown him in the Detroit 
River, unless you could root up the accursed law which 
propagates liquor-sellers as a hotbed propagates vege- 
tation, you would have another crop in three months 
just as mean as the old one. But if you root up the 
law that makes legal a business in which a man can 
make more money with less capital and less brains and 
less character than any other business on earth, the 
good men, if there are any such in the business, will go 
into other trades and professions, and the mean men 
will fetch up in State prisons, where they should have 
been long ago. The liquor business is simply on trial 
on account of the record it has made in society. So- 
ciety never tries men or institutions for their names. 
It tries men for their acts, institutions for their results. 
The law of this State would recognize one difference 
between me and my friend David Preston. It would 
recognize me as an alien, it would recognize him as a 
citizen ; but though I am an alien, though I pay no 
taxes in this State, I am as safe as my friend, that is, as 
long as I behave myself as well as he behaves himself ; 
but if at the close of this meeting I should go out of 
the hall, and as I went out should draw a knife from 



l6o THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

my coat and bury it to the hilt in the heart of some 
person, then I would be arrested and locked up and he 
would be allowed to go home. Now you would not 
arrest me because my name is Finch and let him go 
because his name is Preston. You would not arrest me 
because I am a lawyer and let him go because he is a 
banker. You arrest me because of my own free will I 
had taken human life. For the act I would be arrested, 
for the act I would be tried, for the act I would be 
hung ; and as society w r ould deal with me it would deal 
with anybody before me. As long as man lives in so- 
ciety sober, temperate, honest, so long society defends 
and protects him ; but when a man wills to commit 
crime, wills to injure another socially or financially, 
then the Government reaches out and takes that man 
from the ranks of other men and tries him, not for 
what the Government has done, but for what he has 
done ; not because it wants to, but because it must do 
it. The punishment is not the result of the act of the 
Government, but the result of the act of the man who 
made the punishment necessary. As society deals with 
men it deals with institutions and trades. 

As long as an institution or a business or a trade 
promotes the interests of society, so long the Govern- 
ment defends and protects that trade ; but when a trade 
or a business establishes a criminal character by the 
production of vice, crime, pauperism, and misery, then 
the Government arrests the business and tries it for its 
results. In this way the Governments of most of the 
States have tried and condemned lotteries. The gov- 
ernments of cities try and suppress slaughter-houses, 
fat-rendering establishments, soap-factories, and gun- 
powder-factories, and the Government of the United 
States has tried and is punishing the practice of polyg- 
amy by the Brighamite Mormon Church. The pro- 
hibitionists ask that the alcoholic liquor traffic as repre- 
sented by the saloon, the beer garden, the dance hall, 
the concert saloon, the dive, the brothel, and the gam- 
bling hell shall be tried exactly as the Government tries 
lotteries, slaughter-houses, and the Mormon Church. 
The charges against the liquor business are plain, pos- 
itive f definite, and specific ; the question raised is simply 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. l6l 

the guilt or the innocence of this business as a social 
institution, and if guilty the proper punishment for 
crime of such enormity. 

I will not to-night take time to prove the guilt of 
the alcoholic traffic. The men in the business concede 
its guilt. This trial has now been going forward for 
weeks, and no one has stood in the pulpit or on the 
platform to defend the history, the record, or the results 
of the alcoholic liquor traffic as a social institution. If 
the Church had been assailed the Church would have 
been defended ; if the dry-goods trade had been assailed 
the dry-goods trade would have been defended ; if the 
school had been assailed it would have been defended, 
but here is a great business on trial for its life ; the men 
engaged are worth millions of dollars ; no one can doubt 
their ability to employ talent to present their case, if 
they have any case to present, and yet this trial is draw- 
ing to a close without a single defender standing before 
the people to urge the innocence of the charge made 
against it, to justify its record or to claim by its own 
merits that it ought to be allowed to live. If you assail 
the Democratic party, the man who defends it is a Demo- 
crat ; if you assail the Republican party, the man who 
defends it is a Republican; if you assail the Methodist 
Church, the man who defends it is a Methodist; but if 
you assail the liquor traffic the man who steps up to de- 
fend it claims to be just as good a temperance man as 
you are. The meeting of Monday night is a sample of 
meetings held in defence of this system. The farmer 
who goes out to defend the interests of the farmers 
wears the weapons of a farmer ; the printer wears the 
armor of his trade ; the merchant wears the armor of 
his craft ; but the apologist for the continuance of the 
liquor traffic commences his speech with the statement, 
" I am a temperance man/' and denies that he repre- 
sents the liquor interests or is friendly to its continu- 
ance. In justice to my cause, I call your attention to 
the fact that the saloon-keepers of this State unani- 
mously indorse the speeches of the Monday night meet- 
ing, and that they are circulating those speeches by 
thousands over the State. A minister who would 
preach a sermon which could be indorsed and circu- 
ii 



l62 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

lated by the devil to sustain and promote sin, should be 
expelled from the Christian pulpit. A temperance doc- 
trine which is indorsed by the brewers, the distillers, 
the saloon-keepers, the dive-keepers, and circulated by 
them as a defence of their trade should be repudiated 
by all enemies of drunkenness, immorality, and vice. 
Mr. Duffield, Mr. Kent, and others protest again and 
again that they do not represent the liquor interests. 
Why this reiterated protestation ? Why is it necessary 
for them to constantly affirm that they are temperance 
men? Is it because they feel the pressure of the old 
rule : " A man is known by the company he keeps/' and 
because they know the indorsation and support of the 
liquor-sellers throws doubt on them and this doctrine? 
The speech I shall make here to-night will not be circu- 
lated by the liquor-sellers of this State, and I do not 
envy the speakers of Monday night — their champions 
and their defenders. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I would go half-way around 
the world once and pay my own fare, to find a man with 
cheek hard enough, and impudence great enough, to 
stand on the public platform and claim that the public 
bar-room, judged by its history, its record, and its 
results in this country, was entitled to live in any de- 
cent State, in any decent nation. I have never heard 
such a defence, I never shall. The business is guilty, 
guilty, guilty, and the only question is the method of 
dealing with the criminal. 

But two methods are proposed — the one license or 
tax, the other prohibition. I hardly need stand here to 
demonstrate that license and tax in their effects upon 
the liquor trade are identical. I appreciate the sneer of 
Mr. Duffield when he says, " Shall Tom, Dick, and 
Harry, hired at $10 or $20 a night, go on the stump of 
prohibition and claim that taxation is identical with li- 
cense ?" I regret as much as Mr. Duffield can that the 
poverty of our clients will not justify our receiving a larger 
fee ; but our misfortune is his gain, for our clients have 
been made paupers by his clients. We stand here to 
defend the drunkards' wives, the drunkards' children, 
and the drunkards' homes. He stood on the platform 
to oppose the destruction of the liquor traffic. The 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 63 

millions of dollars in the liquor business of this State 
have been drawn from the homes, from the wives and 
the children of Michigan. I would rather stand before 
this audience to plead in behalf of the wrecked woman 
and the ruined child for nothing than to stand to plead 
in behalf of the bloated oligarchy of liquor-sellers for 
all the money in the blood-stained coffers in that trade 
in the State. His sneer was undoubtedly made to cover 
the weakness of his position ; let us inquire what are 
the facts in regard to the identity of these two methods. 
Under license, grog-shops exist and are protected by 
the State ; under tax, grog-shops exist and are protected 
by the State. Mr. Duffield says : " Were they familiar 
with the Michigan law they would drop their license 
feature and adopt the taxation and regulation style.'' 
Taxes are levied for two purposes — revenue and regula- 
tion, and Mr. Duffield admits that the tax law combines 
both of these features. Judge Cooley says: "The pro- 
tection of Government being the consideration for which 
taxes are demanded, all parties who receive or are en- 
titled to that protection may be called upon to render 
an equivalent." I pay taxes on my home for the protec- 
tion that Government gives that home. Under license 
the man who has paid the license fee is entitled to the 
protection of Government, and Mr. Duffield will not 
dare claim that under taxation the man who has paid 
the tax is not entitled to protection ! If a mob should 
attack a saloon would not the Government be compelled 
to defend it ? Is there any legal process by which the 
saloon may be destroyed if it complies with the tax 
law ? Is not a saloon-keeper who pays the tax entitled 
to protection and defence from civil government ? Mr. 
Duffield says, "Taxes are burdens," but he is too good 
a lawyer not to know the burden is borne for the greater 
benefit of the protection afforded by the Government, 
to support which the tax is levied. Juggle with words 
as much as you please ; and you will not be able to show 
any difference in the effects of the saloon which under 
regulation pays $500 license, and the saloon which un- 
der taxation pays $500 tax. Government permits every- 
thing that it does not prohibit. Under your old pro- 
hibitory law the liquor business had no existence in 



164 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Michigan, and there were no property rights in 
liquor. To-day under your tax law the liquor business 
has a legal existence in this State, and there arc 
property rights in liquor. Now. what gives it this 
legal existence and what creates these property 
rights if it is not the tax law ? To say that the Gov- 
ernment which recognizes the existence of the saloon 
by receiving tax from it, and which recognizes the evil 
effects of the existence of the saloon by providing for 
its regulation, does not sanction its existence under 
those regulations, is to talk nonsense. And when the 
learned Professor Kent, from the Law Department of 
Ann Arbor University, confounds the taxing power of 
the General Government with the police power of the 
State, it is not to be wondered at that the country is 
full of poor lawyers. And when he says, " When in con- 
sequence of the war it was necessary, by Federal legis- 
lation, to tax the sale of liquor, the liquor-dealers un- 
dertook to say that in consequence of that tax their 
business was protected in cities where the law forbade 
it, they took the case to the Supreme Court of the 
United States, and that court decided that taxation 
was not license and no approval of the business," the 
learned professor should know and ought to have stated, 
that the decision was that the tax permit of the Gen- 
eral Government was no bar to proceedings against the 
liquor business under the police power of the States ; 
and with his intelligence I am sure he would not wish 
to be understood as holding that the payment of the 
$25 tax to the Federal Government is not a bar to pro- 
ceedings against the liquor business by the General 
Government under its present law. While the United 
States tax will not act as a permit in the State as 
against the police power of the State, it does act as a 
permit by the General Government against its own 
power. But the point I wish to maintain, outside of 
all legal technicalities and quibbles, is that the social 
effects of a licensed saloon and the social effects of a 
taxed saloon are identical. 

The quibbling and twisting over the distinction be- 
tween taxation and license is a confession on the part 
of the advocates of tax that the liquor busing is 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 165 

wrong. If it is not wrong, why object to licensing it ? 
If the liquor business is right, there is no reason why 
the Government should not license and permit its ex- 
istence. If the liquor business is wrong, then to seek 
to justify its existence upon the ground that the Gov- 
ernment has not specially said while deriving benefits 
from the traffic that the traffic may exist, is the trick 
of a sophist. But for the sake of the argument to- 
night, let us grant that there is a difference between 
license and tax, and say that the methods of punish- 
ment for the liquor crime now being discussed in this 
State are tax and prohibition. From this point I desire 
to go forward to prove that of all the humbugs, frauds, 
and failures ever written upon the statute-books of a free 
State, the liquor tax laws of this country are the worst ; 
that they never have been enforced ; that they never 
will be enforced ; that they never can be enforced. 
First, because they are wrong in theory. There ap- 
pear in society three classes of institutions : good — part 
good and part bad — and bad. Government protects 
and defends the good, regulates and restrains the part 
good and part bad, and prohibits the bad. Regulation 
implies something good in the thing regulated that is 
to be developed by regulation. You regulate to de- 
velop, not to destroy. You take your boy across your 
knee and regulate him, to develop the good traits and 
repress the bad traits in the boy ; you do not regulate 
to kill. You take the whip in your hand to regulate 
the ugly horse, not to destroy, but to develop the good 
tendencies and destroy the bad tendencies. In one 
corner of your yard is an apple-tree, crooked as a horn. 
Shall it be pulled up ? No. The apple-tree is good, 
the crooks are bad. You drive down a stake to regu- 
late the crooks out of it, because in after years the tree 
will reward the labor. In the other corner is a thorn- 
bush as crooked as the apple-tree. Do you regulate 
that? No, because it is utterly worthless, and the time 
spent in regulation would be useless. There in a lot is 
a calf with a broken leg. What do you do ? Regulate 
the leg so as to mend the bad fracture, and in after 
years the cow pays for the labor. In another lot is a 
mad dog with a broken leg. Do you ever regulate that 



1 66 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

leg? No. The more you fuss with the animal the 
worse off you are. It is utterly bad ; the remedy is to 
prohibit existence. In your lot stands a large apple- 
tree with knotty limbs, with little runts of apples. Will 
you cut it down ? No. Regulate it, trim it up, and 
graft it. Ten years pass away and here is a large apple, 
the legitimate fruit of regulation ; but regulate the 
grog-shops of Detroit with your accursed tax law from 
now until Gabriel blows his trumpet, and the last fruit 
you vv T ill pick off the accursed things is the same you 
get to-day, " bummers " every time. Do you expect you 
can ever regulate the grog-shop so as to produce Chris- 
tians ; that you can ever regulate it so that its custom- 
ers will be good men, their wives happy, and their 
children happy ? Do you not know that as long as 
you permit the thing to exist, that just in the same pro- 
portion it will breed drunkards, broken-hearted women, 
and beggar children ? It is bad and all bad, vile and 
all vile, evil and all evil, and should be destroyed. The 
system of taxation and regulation has been tried in 
England for more than 400 years, and under it the 
liquor business has grown to be the master of the Brit- 
ish nation. In this country, under the system of regu- 
lation and taxation the liquor-shops have doubled in 
numbers within the last twenty-five years. There is 
not a lawyer before me who does not know that it will 
not take one-half the force to enforce prohibition that it 
does to fail to enforce license or taxation. The reason 
is that taxation gives the liquor business a standing in 
society, creates property rights, and makes a majority 
of all the sales legal. Under it, violation becomes the 
exception, and the legal sale the rule. In this way the 
presumption of innocence is in favor of the liquor 
business. To secure a conviction you must break 
down the presumption of the legal sale and estab- 
lish the exception of the illegal or unrighteous 
sale. Your tax law prohibits the sale of liquor to 
minors and licenses the sale to adults. In this State 
you prohibit murder. You start down the streets of 
Detroit in the morning accompanied by your boy, who 
is seventeen years old. As you approach a saloon, he 
says, " Good-morning, father/' and enters. You wait. 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 167 

Two hours after, he comes out stupidly drunk. You 
have watched the door during that time, you know he 
has not left the place. He went in sober and came out 
drunk. Is that any evidence that the man in the place 
sold him liquor in violation of law? No. I go into 
another building, later ; you see me come out and spon 
after you discover that a man has been murdered ; he 
has been killed by a knife in his heart. You come to 
my home, you find blood on my coat, scratches on my 
hands. Is there any evidence that I killed the man? 
Unless I can show how the blood came on my coat and 
the scratches on my hands, unless I can show what I 
was doing in that place, how the man was killed, 
you will send me to State's prison for life for his 
murder. Yet the evidence that would send me to 
State's prison for murder, would not touch a taxed 
liquor-dealer for selling liquor to your boy and send- 
ing him to a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's 
hereafter. The law prohibits the sale of liquor 
on certain days. You enter a saloon on one of those 
days, see a man step to the bar, hear him call for liquor, 
see the liquor turned out, drank, and paid for. Can you 
swear that liquor was bought and drunk in that place? 
If you think so, go upon the witness-stand and swear 
that the taxed drunkard-maker broke the law and sold 
liquor in violation of the statute. The defendant's 
attorney asks you where you stood in the saloon. 
You answer, "Just inside the door." " How far from 
the bar? " "Ten feet." " Can you smell whiskey ten 
feet?" "No." "Did you taste that stuff that man 
drank?" "No." " Did you smell it ?"" No." "How 
do you know it is whiskey?" "Well, it looked like 
whiskey." "Are there other things that look like 
whiskey ? " " Yes." " Will you sw T ear that it was 
whiskey?" "Well, I think it was." "You are not 
swearing to what you think, you are swearing to what 
you know ; will you swear it was whiskey?" And the 
answer must be " No." To secure a conviction under 
the tax law, you must enter a saloon, induce the liquor- 
seller to sell liquor to you in violation of the law, 
thereby becoming particeps criminis. You must turn 
the liquor down your own throat so as to be able to 



1 68 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

swear you know what it was. Then enter the court 
room and hear the judge charge the jury that a man 
who deliberately induces another man to commit a 
crime becomes particeps criminis, that his evidence 
should be thoroughly corroborated before it should 
have weight with the jury. If it took the same evi- 
dence to convict a man of murder that it does of 
illegal liquor-selling under the tax law, the witness 
would have to swear that he rode astride the bullet 
and saw it enter the murdered man's heart. The 
result is that the tax law of this State is openly and 
impudently defied. This Mr. Duffield admits when he 
says, "The only objection urged against it is that it is 
not carried out. That may be true to some extent, but 
that is no fault of the law"; and again, " In some large 
cities there is some difficulty in enforcing the Sunday 
and night lav/, but in most of the smaller cities and in 
nearly all the villages it is fairly well enforced/' Now, 
I stand here to assert, and I challenge denial, that the 
tax law is violated in every city, every town, and every 
village in the State ; that convictions for violation are 
the exception and not the rule ; that convictions under 
the forms of evidence required under the tax law are 
practically impossible ; and what is true in Michigan is 
true in every State where a tax or high license has been 
tried. The grand jury of Chicago, in a recent statement 
to the court, said : " Having discovered that a majority 
of the cases of robbery sent to the grand jury by the 
different police justices of Chicago, originated in the 
low saloons in certain districts of the city, the perpe- 
trators of which are licensed to carry on their nefarious 
business, and enjoy immunity from police authorities of 
the city of Chicago, a committee of our body was duly 
appointed to ascertain if such charges of irregularities 
and flagrant dereliction of duty on the part of the 
police officers were true ; the committee reported that 
they were, and that furthermore the ordinance requiring 
the closing of saloons by midnight has by long custom 
become a dead letter in the community, and a partiality 
seemed to exist in favor of groggeries of the very lowest 
character, and they have been described on the sworn 
testimony of policemen before our body, as robbers' 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 69 

dens." Andrew Paxton, agent of the Law and Order 
League of Chicago, speaking of the condition of things 
under high license, says : " Some of the low dens are 
of the most infamous character and are a menace to 
the city. They are filled with thieves and debased 
women. The chances are that any man who enters 
them will be drugged and robbed. One of these 
places was raided one night, and eighteen women of the 
basest sort were found there. Some were drunk and 
nearly all partially so. Two weeks later another raid 
was made and about the same number was found. Our 
own agents went there, and were solicited "by the 
women to go with them to their rooms. One night 
a young man came with a considerable sum of money. 
He became drunk and was followed out by the bar- 
tender and robbed. In our protest against the renewal 
of the man's license, w r e set forth these facts, and 
the evidence sustained them, yet the license w r as 
renewed in this infamous place frequented by the worst 
characters. Young girls in short dresses are kept to 
lure in young men. From some of these dens, women 
are sent out to intercept working girls on their way 
home, and try to induce them to accompany them. 
Their purpose and their deplorable results need no 
explanation.'' 

The effect of high license is to fortify the immoral 
features of the liquor business, to destroy the semi- 
respectable part of the trade, and to develop its worst 
tendencies. In Nebraska, under low license, num- 
bers of Germans kept grocery-stores, and sold lager- 
beer in connection with that business. No gamblers, no 
prostitutes frequented these places. The effect of high 
license was to close these places because they did not 
sell enough liquor to pay the tax ; but not so with the 
place where bad women were kept to tempt men, or 
the place where gambling was carried on ; not a place 
where men were held up and robbed, was closed by in- 
creasing the tax. " The little corner grocery-stores can- 
not carry these burdens and therefore they disappear," 
urges Mr. Dufiield ; but I say to him, the dive, the con- 
cert garden, the gambling hell, can carry these burdens, 
and therefore they remain. Mr. Duffield prints, speak- 



170 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

ing of the license law of Illinois : " There the tax law 
went into operation " (notice that he calls a high license 
law a tax law) " in 1883 only, and what has it done 
there ? It closed, in one year, i,ogo saloons in Chicago 
alone, and blotted out 4,000 in the State." I must call 
your attention to the fact that he dodges the whole and 
the real question, viz. : " Does tax decrease the evils of 
intemperance ? " What does it matter whether there 
are sixteen or fourteen saloons on a block ? Cannot the 
people get as drunk in fourteen as in sixteen ? But, as 
he sees fit to avoid the real question, we must follow 
him into his chosen field and ask what are facts. A tead- 
ing lawyer of Illinois, the Hon. George C. Christian, sends 
me the following statement : " My grocer told me that 
he had just quit selling beer to families. I asked him 
when : he replied, ' When high license went into effect/ 
Why ? * Because I didn't sell $500 worth in a year, and 
therefore I can't afford to pay the tax and make money/ 
I asked, i Is this general ? ' ' Yes/ said he, ' there are 
3,000 family groceries in Chicago. One-half or more 
sold beer to families before high license. Now not over 
100 take out license/ The number of saloon licenses 
the year before high license, was 3,820 ; number of sa- 
loons licensed now, 3,760 — an apparent decrease of 60 ; 
total old saloons licensed, 3,820, less family grocers, say 
one thousand, equal 2,820. Present number of saloon 
licenses and only 100 family groceries selling, 3,760. 
Total increase in saloons 940." This shows the suppres- 
sion of the class of liquor-sellers who handle liquor 
with other commodities, and an increase in the grog- 
shops proper. Mr. Duffield came within 940 of getting 
the correct figures, which is wonderfully accurate, con- 
sidering the side of the question that he is discussing. 
In regard to the closing of saloons in other parts of 
Illinois, the State is working under local option, and the 
decrease in the saloons is owing to prohibition, not 
taxation. I challenge Mr. Duffield to show a single 
town in Illinois where the saloons have been driven out 
by tax, while it is easy to show numbers of towns 
where the high tax acted as a bribe, and broke down 
local option. Again he speaks of the working of tax in 
Ohio. Under tax in Ohio the Christian Sunday has 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 171 

been destroyed In all large cities, and it is as legal to sell 
liquor on Sunday as on Monday. Concert gardens and 
saloon dives make the day hideous, and interrupt per- 
sons on their way to and from places of worship. De- 
siring to get at the correct facts I telegraphed Dr. Biler, 
editor of the Central Christian Advocate, and asked him 
how tax was working in Cincinnati. I received the 

following answer : 

"Cincinnati, March 23. 
lt Dr. Biler away. I have seen Methodist preachers in the city. 
Unanimously for constitutional prohibition. Tax law unworkable 
and unsatisfactory. (Signed), H. W. William, Asst." 

How does this agree with Mr. Duffield's statement : 
" Everybody in Ohio is satisfied with the tax law " ? 

You will notice that the witnesses cited by Mr. Duffield 
himself, make the prohibitory feature of the law the 
only one which can be defended. Judge Foraker says : 
" Practical prohibition has been secured under the local 
option feature of the Dow law, in at least 150 munici- 
pal corporations in the State." His other witnesses say 
the local option feature pleases the prohibitionists. 
Nearly every day adds to the municipalities availing 
themselves of the local prohibition feature of the tax 
law. Notice this is not the result of taxation, but the 
result of prohibition by people who utterly repudiate 
the principle of taxation. 

In Nebraska, the Hon. H. W. Hardy, ex-Mayor of Lin- 
coln, the father of the high license law, says : " High 
license utterly fails to abolish the evil effects of the 
liquor traffic. As a temperance measure it is an entire 
and complete failure.'' 

Rev. J. B. Maxfield, Presiding Elder of the Methodist 
Church, says : " Men who pay the $1,000 license resort 
to every possible means to secure trade. The result is 
that prostitution and gambling have largely increased 
in the State." Mr. Duffield, in his defence of the in- 
defensible tax system, gives special prominence to the 
prohibitory features of the law, and admits that the 
taxing principle is an impure and an unsound position. 
He says : " Take a township or a village, for instance, 
where there is a pure and sound sentiment on the sub- 
ject of temperance and the liquor traffic, and the trustees 



172 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

meet, or the board, and say we do not want any saloon 
in our town or village. Now let us fix the amount of 
the bond required from any and every man who wishes 
to sell at $6,000 and no less. This can be done under 
the law." Now, if a pure and a sound sentiment will 
lead men to adopt prohibition by the roundabout way 
of refusing the bonds offered by the liquor-sellers, then 
the sentiment that advocates tax and opposes prohibi- 
tion is impure and unsound. Pure and sound sentiment 
on the subject of sentiment ! I thank thee, Duffield, for 
the word. In speaking of the tax law he says, " That 
it is illegal to sell liquor where billiards and other games 
are played, it is illegal to sell in any hall adjacent to a 
variety show or theatre, it is illegal to keep open bars 
or places for the sale of liquor on the Sabbath day, 
election days, regular holidays, and all such places must 
be closed after 10 or 11 o'clock at night until 7 A.M. ; 
that no child under 16 years of age shall be permitted 
to remain in any bar-room nor shall any saloon- 
keeper give an entertainment on Sunday in his 
place." All these features are prohibitory features, and 
not taxation features. If it were not for the prohibi- 
tory salt distributed through the tax law of Michigan, it 
would stink in the nostrils of decent people. To de- 
fend the principle of taxation he cited the opinions of 
eminent men in the East. When I read his speech, I 
regretted that a bad cause compelled him to adopt 
questionable methods to uphold it. To place leading 
men in false positions is neither fair nor honorable. To 
cite Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler as opposed to constitu- 
tional prohibition after Dr. Cuyler had written him a 
letter urging him not to make the speech, deserves a 
more severe reprimand than I care to give on this plat- 
form. As he had called these witnesses, and unfairly 
used the influence of their great names, I, knowing he 
had done so, telegraphed them the facts, and now want 
to read Duffield's witnesses against Duffield, and want 
you to bear in mind they are his witnesses, and he 
must accept what they say ; that he cannot impeach 
them : 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED, 1/3 

"New York, March 24. 
" I am not opposed to constitutional prohibition, but sincerely hope 
the people of Michigan will adopt it. 

"(Signed), Noah Davis, 

" Ex-jfudge of Supreme Court" 

11 New York, March 23. 

" No man has a right to quote me on the question. I simply stood 
for high license in the State of New York as the most prohibitory 
measure that could be passed at the present time. 

"Wm. Lloyd; 
" Of the Central Congregational Church." 

" New Orleans, La., March 23. 

" I am now, and have been since the movement started, in favor of 
constitutional prohibition. Theodore L. Cuyler." 

Under the present law of Michigan there were, in 
1885, 4,180 liquor manufacturers and dealers. Will any 
man claim that there is any difficulty in obtaining liq- 
uor or that drunkenness, and crime, and vice are not 
the result of these taxed saloons? The case summed 
up against taxation is this : 1. Taxation creates prop- 
erty rights in liquor, gives a liquor-dealer a legal stand- 
ing in the community, and renders the enforcement of 
the law practically impossible. If Mr. Duffield doubts 
this, let me suggest that he commence to-morrow to try 
and enforce the tax lav/ in this city. When the liquor- 
dealers sell liquor to minors let hirn enter a complaint. 
When they sell liquor on Sunday, enter a complaint. 
When they sell liquor on holidays, enter a complaint. 
If, at the end of six months, he is not a prohibitionist, 
I will buy him the best suit of clothes he ever wore in 
his life. Is it not a fact that under the tax system of 
this State the business men are terrorized and intimi- 
dated so that they do not dare to make complaints, but 
ask the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the 
temperance organizations, or some irresponsible parties 
who have no property to be injured by the liquor-sell- 
ers, to undertake the enforcement of this law ? 

2. It reduces the number of groceries that sell liquor 
incidentally; it increases saloons that sell nothing else. 

3. It permits a business in cities and towns that 
makes drunkards, paupers, and criminals. 

4. The tax paid by the business goes into the city 
and town treasuries. The taxes to support the crimi- 



1/4 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

nals and the paupers made by the business comes from 
the entire State, thereby laying on the shoulders of 
those who receive no part of the revenue of the liquor 
traffic the burdens of the liquor traffic itself. 

5. It leads to the desecration of the Christian Sab- 
bath, to the debauchery of workingmen, and the degra- 
dation of workingmen's homes. 

6. It is everywhere violated, and little or no attempt 
is made to enforce it. 

7. The prohibition obtained under it can only be pro- 
cured by false methods and in circuitous ways, which 
makes it valueless when obtained. 

8. It creates a class of drunkard-makers who live by 
working to increase the sale, and consequently the con- 
sumption, of liquor. 

9. It is a failure as a temperance measure. 

Mr. Duffield is the father of the tax law. The tax 
law is openly and impudently violated in Detroit. Mr. 
Duffield is a lawyer and a man of wealth and standing 
in the community. Why does he not make his law 
work? It will not do for him to ask prohibitionists to 
enforce a law in which they do not believe, and yet his 
sneer that " no prohibitionist ever attempted to enforce 
the law," is utterly unfounded. In fact, it seems to me 
that a man of his experience and knowledge of the af- 
fairs of this State, must have known it to be untrue. 
It is the prohibitionists who have tried to enforce the 
tax law and thereby demonstrated its utter worthless- 
ness as a regulative measure. The members of the law 
and order leagues of this State are largely prohibition- 
ists. Prohibitionists have furnished the money and 
done the work to attempt the enforcement of this law, 
while Mr. Duffield, and men who like him advocate 
the tax law everywhere, do nothing to make the law 
operative, and justify their indifference and idleness 
by sneering at prohibitionists, and insisting that they 
shall enforce the tax law. I challenge Mr. Duffield 
to show that the tax law of Michigan has decreased 
the crime, pauperism, and vice resulting from the use 
of intoxicating liquors, or made it more difficult for the 
drunkard to obtain liquor. I challenge Mr. Duffield to 
prove the tax system is workable by trying to enforce 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 75 

it. I say the law is so bad that it cannot be worked by 
the constitutional machinery of Government, and chal- 
lenge Mr. Duffield to prove my statement false, by en- 
forcement in Detroit. 

The question is now, Will the prohibitory law work 
better ? I repeat my statement that it will not take 
one-half the force to enforce prohibition, that it does to 
fail to enforce license. 

The trial of prohibition in this State was made dur- 
ing the terrible period of our civil war. The whole 
attention of the nation was absorbed in the issues of 
that great struggle. Churches languished, schools grew 
weak, but the liquor business flourished. With the 
close of the war there came a reaction, and with the re- 
action an attempt to enforce the law. The last year 
that the law was on the statute-book of this State, the 
grog-shops decreased 2,862. Yet Mr. Duffield pre- 
sumed upon the ignorance of his audience, and asked : 
" Did you ever hear, Mr. Sheley, of a prohibition law 
that wiped out ten saloons ? " 

Mr. Sheley—" No, never." 

And then in the next breath he claims that the tax 
law has largely reduced the number of saloons, quoting 
figures one year from the United States internal reve- 
nue reports and the next year from the State reports, 
but neglecting to state whether there were any saloons 
in that year that continued selling without paying the 
tax, and also neglecting to explain that a red-ribbon 
movement which swept through the country, and the 
consequent temperance sentiment created by that move- 
ment, was the real cause of the reduction, or the seem- 
ing' reduction of the saloons in Michigan, instead of 
the tax law. When this pressure was brought to bear 
upon the liquor-dealers, a brewers' congress, held in 
Detroit, August 12, 1874, demanded the repeal of the 
law. If the law had injured them sooner, a demand 
would have sooner been made for its repeal. It was not 
until the law was becoming effective that the liquor- 
sellers demanded at the hands of the politicians of this 
State that the law be strangled. The conditions to-day 
are entirely different. The temperance forces are thor- 
oughly organized. Total abstinence is taught in the 



176 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

schools. The churches are thoroughly awake on the 
question. The politicians are av/are that they can no 
longer slight it, and prohibition, if adopted in this State, 
will be enforced. I am surprised and astonished to see 
the statements made by Mr. Duffield against prohibition 
in other States. When I read the speech I knew that 
the statements, or rather the inferences from the state- 
ments, were not true. So I telegraphed gentlemen of 
undoubted integrity that he had seen fit to drag into 
the controversy, in the States referred to, and asked for 
the facts in the case. The witnesses I shall call are 
honored in the States where they live. I regret that 
in discussing this question I am compelled to meet 
Mr. Duffield in two ways — first, Mr. Duffield as printed ; 
second, Mr. Duffield as spoken — and that he deemed it 
necessary to make one speech for the people of Detroit, 
and one for the farmers of the country. In his attack 
upon prohibition he bases his whole charge upon the 
statement of the Internal Revenue Commissioner of 
the United States. Mr. Duffield is a lawyer and knows 
that the tax permit issued by the General Government 
to the saloon is identical with the tax permit issued to 
the drug-store, or any place that retails alcoholic spirits. 
He also knows that in a State under tax the man who 
obtains the permit holds the permit for an entire year. 
That is, a man under prohibition who wants to violate 
the State law pays the United States tax to prevent 
an interference of that Government, so that he shall 
only have one power to fight. That if a man is arrested 
and imprisoned, the permit appears in the records of 
the United States ; so that in one town in Kansas where 
twenty-one permits were granted, nineteen of the liq- 
uor-sellers were in the jail, and the other skipped the 
country, and the town did not have an open grog-shop 
during the year. Mr. Duffield is either very ignorant 
or else he knows that the tax permit of the United 
States is absolutely no evidence, that it does not show 
that a single liquor-shop is open, or that the State law 
is violated ; that it simply shows the intent of the party 
in paying twenty-five dollars to violate the State law if 
he can. In exposing the fallacy of his position I de- 
sire, in all cases where possible, to criticise the printed 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 77 

speech, and only refer to the speech that he really made, 
in order to get an explanation of his views. 

Mr. Duffield printed : " Let us, for instance, take the 
State of Rhode Island. There the prohibition law has 
been in operation now for six months, and carries with 
it very stringent provisions for its enforcement. What 
record has it already made for itself? The records in 
Providence County show that of the whole number of 
cases tried for the last six months there were but three 
convictions. In the September term there were 106 
liquor cases on the appeal docket, and in the December 
docket 116, and of the whole number there were but 
four verdicts of ' guilty' rendered ; the rest of the cases 
were variously disposed of by discontinuances on pay- 
ment of cost, discontinuances on conditions and disa- 
greements of juries. The same state of things is being 
enacted here that prevailed under our prohibition laws 
of twenty years ago. The result is that already the 
best men in the State are deluging the General Assem- 
bly with petitions for the law's repeal, many signers 
being those who voted for the prohibition law. One 
petition represented men of property to the amount of 
$3,000,000, another of $12,000,000, and the Legislature 
is now pondering on what is its duty in the premises. 
At a recent meeting of the Law and Order Society in 
Providence, President Robinson, of Brown University, 
admitted that ' the frequency of intoxication upon the 
streets, notwithstanding the prohibition law, was a scan- 
dal and outrage upon decency.' ' Mr. Duffield gives 
no authority for his statements, nor does he tell where 
he got his figures. 

To find out whether this statement, in regard to a 
resubmission of the question, was true or false, I tele- 
graphed Hon. E. A. Wilson, Speaker of the House, and 

received this answer : 

11 Providence, R. I., March 23. 

" Proposition to submit repeal of prohibitory amendment indefi- 
nitely postponed without debate, unanimously. The liquor nuisance 
will be served with equal unanimity. Prohibition will prohibit in this 
State. E. A. Wilson." 

To meet another statement, I telegraphed Professor 
Robinson, who answered ; 
12 



178 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

"Providence, R. I., March 23, 1887. 

"Constitutional prohibition is good. Political intrigue attempts to 
thwart reform in Providence. W. H. Robinson." 

Desiring to give the people of Michigan the real facts 

in the case, I telegraphed the Rev. H. W. Conant and 

C. R. Brayton, Chief of State Police. They replied 

as follows : 

" Providence, R. I., March 1% 

11 Increase of arrests for drunkenness and revelry in Providence last 
six months license, over eighteen per cent. Decrease in first six 
months prohibition, over forty-two per cent. Common drunkenness 
in same time decreased in Newport 100 per cent.; Pawtucket fifty 
per cent. ; last two months seventy-five per cent. Official figures. 

"H. W. Conant." 

" Providence, R. I., March 24. 

* The statistics from the city of Providence, the largest city in the 
State, show an increase of drunkenness during the last months of the 
license law of 183 per cent. While during the first six months of 
prohibition, as compared with the corresponding period under license, 
drunkenness decreased more than forty-two per cent. The commit- 
ments to the State Workhouse, whose inmates are largely victims of 
the intemperate use of intoxicating liquors, for the first six months 
under prohibition, as compared with the corresponding period under 
license, show a falling off of more than one-half, and resulting in the 
large saving to the State of more than $1,800,000 per annum in the 
item of board alone. The 'growler,' or tin-kettle trade, has almost 
entirely disappeared from the streets, and children are not now seen 
frequenting liquor-saloons for supplies of liquor, as before prohibition 
went into effect. Many families that never saw a penny of the weekly 
earnings of its head, now receive the full benefit of his labor. The 
Legislature, now in session, has just indefinitely postponed, by an 
almost unanimous vote, a proposition to submit the repeal of the pro- 
hibition amendment to the people, and will at this session make the 
prohibition law more effective. C. R. Brayton." 

Mr. Duffield says in regard to Kansas: "Take the 
State of Kansas. Under free traffic " (you see that he 
admits that traffic under license or tax is free traffic), 
"before the prohibition law of last year was enacted, 
there were 2,339 liquor-dealers. In 1886 under prohibi- 
tion there were 1,850." You will notice he fails to say 
how he knows there are any liquor-dealers in Kansas. 
Against his empty assertion I want to put Gov. John 
A. Martin, who recently said : " The liquor sold in the 
city of Topeka amounted under license to two-thirds as 
much as is sold for all purposes in the whole State un- 
der prohibition. ,, He estimates that under license the 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 79 

State sold $60,000,000 per year, and under prohibition 
less than $5,000,000. 

Mr. Duffield prints : " In Vermont, with thirty years 
of prohibition, the United States revenue shows 446 
open saloons." .I'know it showed no such thing. Mr. 
Duffield presumed upon the ignorance of his audience 
when he insinuated that any men could determine from 
the United States revenue whether the tax permit was 
issued to an open saloon, " a hole in the wall, or a drug- 
store." Yet Mr. Duffield said, but did not print, 
" while there is a number of saloons, and that does not 
reckon in hotels, club-houses, or private drinking places." 
I submit this is either reckless assertion or impudent 
pettifoggery. Dare Mr. Duffield claim that the United 
States Government allows hotels and club-houses and 
private drinking-places to be carried on in Vermont 
without the necessary permit ? 

To prove the falsity of his statement I telegraphed 
the Hon. Frank Plumley, one of the most brilliant Re- 
publican leaders of the State of Vermont. He was 
chairman of the last Republican State convention, and 
has been in the Republican campaigns of this State sev- 
eral times. He answered : 

"Northfield, Vt., March 23. 

" Your denial of open saloons in Vermont to my knowledge is abso 
lutely correct. Frank Plumley." 

Mr. Duffield prints: " In the State of Iowa, before 
the prohibition law, there were 3,834 dealers ; under 
prohibition in 1886 there were 4,033, and the manu- 
facture of 5,894,544 gallons/' Mr. Duffield seems 
to be ignorant of the fact that in the State of Iowa 
they have had prohibition of the sale of distilled liq- 
uors since 1853 ; that a recent prohibitory statute sim- 
ply added to the prohibitory law the prohibition of vin- 
ous and fermented liquors. 

To show the absolute working of prohibition in Iowa 
I telegraphed Hon. E. R. Hutchins, Commissioner of 
Labor Statistics. Mr. Hutchins answered : 

"Des Moines, la., March 23. 
" Governor and Attorney-General both say prohibition has constantly 
improved the moral, financial, and social condition of Iowa, and is sue- 



180 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

cessfully enforced in eighty-five of the ninety-nine counties, also grow- 
ing rapidly in favor in the remainder. E. R. Hutchins." 

I will not quote his statement in regard to Maine. 
It is the old one, and has been so often answered, that 
there is no need of replying to it in detail. But I would 
call the attention of the audience to the fact that in 
quoting the Maine Farmer Mr. Duffield fails to tell 
where the paper is printed or to give the date or num- 
ber of the issue containing the statement. But if he 
make another speech he should be honest enough to 
say that the Maine Farmer is and always has been a con- 
sistent advocate of prohibition. His own showing of 
figures in regard to Maine prove that the prohibitory 
law more nearly suppresses liquor-selling and drunken- 
ness in that State, than the tax law in Michigan. How- 
ever, to corroborate the statement of James G. Blaine, 
William P. Frye, Eugene Hale, and all other public 
men of Maine, I telegraphed Joseph R. Bidwell, the 
Governor. He answered : 

"Augusta, Me., March 23. 

"The finances of the State never more prosperous. Drink habit is 
fatal to prosperity in any community. Prohibition promotes morality 
everywhere. Nearly all crimes can be traced to rum, either directly 
or indirectly. The law is well enforced in the country towns. In 
some of the cities it is not quite so effective. The new law will aid 
the enforcement there. Joseph R. Bidwell." 

Hon. Nelson Dingley, Congressman, and editor of 
the Lewiston Daily Journal, writes me : 

"Lewiston, Me., March 23, 1887. 
"The prohibitory law is well enforced, and is a blessing to the State. 

"Nelson Dingley." 

Mr. Duffield makes a great point by citing Rev. A. 

L. Ladd, of Bangor, Me., as opposed to prohibition. 

Mr. Ladd telegraphs me : 

""Bangor, Me., March 24, 1887. 

" Prohibition is a success throughout the State. The amendments 
since passed to the law will make it still more effective in cities. 

"A. L. Ladd." 

In 1844, a f ter the prohibition law of Maine had been 
on trial for thirty years, the people, by a majority of 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. l8l 

47,000, placed it in the State Constitution. Few men 
in this country will presume to claim that the people 
of Maine are either fools or idiots, and yet to charge 
that they made prohibition a part of their organic law 
when it increased pauperism and crime and vice, is to 
challenge their judgment and intelligence, because pro- 
hibition with them was not an experiment. They had 
lived under it and seen its workings for thirty years. 

Mr. Duffield prints, in speaking of the State of Geor- 
gia: "Take the State of Georgia, where it is claimed 
that prohibition and local option have been at work, 
and we find that, according to the Internal Revenue 
Office of the United States, there are to-day more dis- 
tilleries in the State than ever before, and they are rap- 
idly increasing. The increase is not alone in the num- 
ber of stills, but in their capacity — old ones having in- 
creased from five bushels to fifty." As a public man 
Mr. Duffield must know that immediately following the 
war Northern Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, Western 
North Carolina, and South Carolina were filled with 
moonshine distilleries. All attempts to enforce the 
necessary internal revenue laws resulted in unblushing 
crime. But as time has passed on, the enforcement of 
the law has become more uniform, and the so-called re- 
port of increase in distilleries is simply a statement that 
the law is better enforced, and that the distilleries of 
the South are becoming more law-abiding. Desiring to 
call reliable witnesses, I telegraphed the business men 
of Atlanta. The answers were as follows : 

"Atlanta, Ga., March 23. — Georgia, 115 of 137 coun- 
ties absolute prohibition. With imperfect system of 
assessment taxable valuation constantly increasing. 
State in a very prosperous condition." — (W. E. Wright, 
Controller of State.) 

"General merchants from all parts of the State 
report business good." — (J. T. Henderson, Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture.) 

"Atlanta, compared with same dates last year, in- 
creased population 5,000; most moral city in the world. 
Prohibition does prohibit." — (Howard Van Epps, Judge 
City Court.) 



1 82 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

" Business increased $50,000 last two months. " — 
(Kizer & Co., wholesale dry-goods.) 

" Business never so good.'' — (E. P. Chamberlain, dry- 
goods.) 

" Never saw anything like it/' — (G. T. Dood & Co., 
wholesale grocers.) 

" Will transfer $200,000 of real estate this week, on 
eve of biggest kind of boom ; w T orkingmen buying 
homes/' — (S. W. Goode, real estate.) 

" Sales of school-books increased 100 per cent." — ■ 
(J. M. Miller, book-store.) 

" It is doubtful if Atlanta has ever been the scene of 
such a religious movement as at present." — {Daily Con- 
stitution this morning.) 

Indorsed by Rev. J. B. Hawthorne and every min- 
ister of the city. 

u Every business but undertakers' doing well. Not 
a drop of liquor for better than in ten years." — (J. B. 
Thromer, contractor:) 

I might close my case in favor of prohibition by this 
statement: Under prohibition in 1882, Maine paid 
taxes upon spirituous liquors amounting to $25,247.05. 
On fermented liquors, $2,993.34. Michigan, under tax, 
the same year, paid on spirituous liquors, $129,405.02. 
On fermented liquors, $323,137.02 ; total, $452,542.04. 
The effects of prohibition in restraining immorality, 
vice, and crime, are such that the prohibitory law of 
Maine is indorsed by every public man, by every teacher 
in their colleges, by every minister in their pulpits, 
while the effect of the tax law in Michigan is such that 
it is antagonized by the churches, the ministers, the 
teachers, the women, and most of the farmers of this 
State. The contrast between prohibition and license 
is ably drawn by Dr. C. L. Randall, of your own State, 
whose statements I have not seen contradicted : u That 
during the last two years the prohibitory law was on 
our statute-books there was a reduction of 2,862 places 
where liquor was sold, and $39,142.25 in United States 
revenue and 11,393 barrels of beer, and we had but one 
State prison at Jackson with 703 inmates. How was 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 83 

it ten years from that day ? After ten years of taxa- 
tion or legalized rum, we find more than one prison as 
follows : State prison at Jackson with 6jo inmates ; 
State Reformatory, Iona, 611 inmates; Detroit House 
of Correction, 314 inmates; total, 1,595. Draw the 
contrast. Prohibition twenty years with a terrible war, 
723 criminals. Taxation one year with peace and 
plenty, 1,595 ; although our population has increased 
but twenty-two per cent., our criminal population 
increased about 120 per cent." 

Then I urge in favor of prohibition : 

1. That it destroys property rights in liquor obtained 
after the law is passed, and makes possession prima facie 
evidence. It destroys all legal sales for beverage pur- 
poses, and so removes all legal protection from the drunk- 
ard-maker. Proof is simplified and prosecution aided. 

2. That it makes liquor-selling a crime. 

3. That it forces the liquor-dealer into business and 
trades which develop the prosperity and general 
morality of the public. 

4. That it turns the earnings of the laboring man 
from the grog-shop to the store, and from the bar-room 
to the school. 

5. That wherever tried it has reduced liquor-selling 
and the effects resulting from liquor-selling. 

6. It destroys the open, popular saloon and the 
social habits of treating which drag young men to lives 
of debauchery and crime. 

If prohibition be adopted on the 4th of April, and it 
will be, if an honest ballot and fair count is guaranteed, 
the' question raised by Prof. Kent when he stated, " In 
m y judgment, this amendment, if passed by a majority, 
will be utterly ineffectual/' and gave as a reason that 
it interfered with the property rights of the liquor- 
dealers, is entitled to consideration. The question is 
simply, Will the State be compelled to compensate the 
manufacturers and dealers in liquor for the injury 
which may result to breweries, distilleries, saloons, and 
stock on hand, from the prohibition of the beverage 
sale of alcoholic liquors ? Prof. Kent, with the greatest 
solemnity and with due judicial deliberation, says : " In 
my judgment, if the amendment is adopted, it will be 



1 84 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

held void so far as it undertakes to forfeit the rights of 
individuals in the liquor which they now have/' Prof. 
Kent should know that the prohibitory law does not 
contemplate the forfeiture of the rights of individuals 
in the liquor which they now have. It simply says to 
those individuals that you shall not sell those liquors 
to injure public morals, public intelligence, and public 
prosperity. The attack upon the liquor business is the 
result of the wrongs of that business. But for its own 
wrongs there would never have been a prohibitory 
amendment. The prohibitory law is a police regula- 
tion made necessary by the wrongs of the liquor 
business itself. The law on this question simply is : 
" The trade in alcoholic drinks being lawful as capital 
employed not being duly perfected by law, the Legislature 
then steps in and by an enactment based on general 
reasons of public utility, annihilates the traffic, destroys 
altogether the employment^ and reduces to a nominal 
value the property on hand. Even the keeping of it for 
the purpose of sale becomes a crimi7ial offence, and with- 
out any change whatever in his own conduct and employ- 
ment, the merchant of yesterday becomes the criminal of 
to-day, and the very building in which he lives and 
conducts the business which before the amendment was 
lawful, becomes a subject of legal proceedings and liable 
to be proceeded against for forfeiture. A statute which, 
can do this must be justified upon the highest reasons of 
public benefit, but whether satisfactory or not, the reasons 
address themselves exclusively to legislative zvisdom." 

Government compensates for private property taken 
for public use. Government never compensates for 
prohibiting the wrongful or injurious use of private 
property. If the liquor business had produced the 
same results as the dry-goods business, there would 
have been no attempt to prohibit it. The prohibi- 
tion is the result of the effects of the business. It 
has made its own suppression necessary and cannot 
plead its own wrongs in any court of equity. The 
Professor concedes the weakness of his position when 
he says in the first part of his speech : " I do not advo- 
cate the right of any man to keep a saloon. " The tax 
assessed against a saloon-keeper is for one year, the 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 185 

bond is for one year, and when the saloon-keeper 
enters a business, pays his tax, and gives his bond, 
he knows that at the expiration of the year, all 
privileges and all rights under that tax and that 
bond expire and no mandamus will lie, to compel 
the officers of the village or city to renew the privilege. 
I rent a farm for a year; the man who rents, stocks the 
farm. At the end of a year I refuse to* renew the lease. 
It would be a very poor lawyer who would claim that 
the man could recover from me the value of the stock 
upon the farm because I had refused to renew the lease. 
The liquor-seller knows that his privilege is annual ; 
with the expiration of the privilege he takes the risk 
of renewal. Prof. Kent would certainly not claim that 
if the tax law drove out of the business in a certain 
town twenty saloon-keepers and left ten in the business, 
that the twenty who were driven out could recover 
compensation for their liquors, business, and fixtures. 
One argument made by both Mr. Duffield and Prof. 
Kent in favor of taxation is that it reduces the number 
of saloons. No man will claim that if taxation drove 
half of the liquor-sellers out of the business they could 
recover against the city for damage done. Now if the 
one-half driven out could not recover compensation, 
where is the argument that would give the other half 
compensation when they were driven out of the business 
for doing exactly the same thing that the others had 
done? The fact is, that the liquor-sellers of this country, 
sitting in their idleness, have grown rich off the ruin of 
the homes of the country, and if they are in favor of 
equitable compensation, the people will have no reason 
to fear the settlement. If they will return to the tax- 
payers of the State the money that the tax-payers have 
been compelled to pay to take care of the products of 
their business ; if they will return to the families of the 
State the money that has been squandered by husband, 
by father, and by son, the State can afford to pay for 
every distillery, every brewery, every saloon, and all the 
fixtures and liquors in those establishments. 

But, really, the worst feature of his whole canvass is, 
that this business, realizing that it has no legitimate 
defence, is stooping to methods which threaten the 



1 86 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

social, the industrial, and the commercial prosperity of 
this country. The temperance men have simply asked 
an intelligent examination and discussion of the ques- 
tion. They have been met by boycotting, bulldozing, 
and outrage. The safety of our institutions depends 
upon the right of the people to assemble and discuss 
all matters of public policy, and anything that prevents 
such assemblage and such discussion is an enemy of 
our liberties and our free institutions. The proposition 
to boycott business men for their honest opinion, the 
attempts to burn churches, the threats to take human 
life, should prejudice everybody against a business that 
has no other defence. In Holly the other night the 
people were assembled in the Methodist church to listen 
to a prohibition speech. The liquor-sellers, to break 
up the meeting, fired the building, and to say that I 
was astonished hardly expresses my feelings as I 
read the statement made by Prof. Kent when he said, 
speaking of this outrage : " Again, gentlemen, when 
men feel that way, if you consider them altogether, 
how are you going to enforce the law ? I know of no 
way. And what are the means they are likely to use 
in withstanding any attempt to enforce them ? I will 
tell you what means they will use. They will begin 
with legal means probably. They will prevent juries 
from convicting, they will undertake to overthrow the 
law and probably they will succeed. If they do not' 
succeed in that, then they will use what means God and 
nature has placed in their hands to defend what they 
regard as their most sacred rights." 

I ask now, ladies and gentlemen, if a more outrageous 
and more dangerous sentiment ever fell from the lips 
of a public man. . He says : " I am the last one to excuse 
or defend the attempt to burn the Methodist churches." 
But does he repudiate it ? Read : " And can we, whose 
fathers secured their liberty in ways not unlike these, 
can we say that if our rights, which we thought were 
sacred, were assailed in that way, we should do other- 
wise ? I fear not." Such language says to every liquor- 
seller outlaw in the country. " If I were in your place and 
my business were attacked, I would burn churches, de- 
stroy property, or use any means that God and nature had 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 87 

^given me to defend myself." There is no excuse for the 
use of these words. This discussion is the discussion 
•of a matter of governmental policy. The people are 
intelligent. This is a government of the people, by 
the people, and for the people, and to attempt in any 
way to extenuate the burning of buildings, the boy- 
cotting of business men, the taking of human life, is 
to open the doors for murder and anarchy in this 
country. Some enemy of Ireland certainly must have 
been whispering in the ears of Prof. Kent, or he would 
have made no attempt to compare the ragged, home- 
less outcast of Glenbeigh with the bloated liquor-sellers 
of this State. Look : a woman is driven from the home 
of her fathers in rags and misery to starve beside the 
street. Look again : a man is sitting in the doors of a 
saloon in entire idleness, growing rich off the homes, 
the misery, the suffering and agony of the women and 
children. Then compare the Irish mother, shivering 
in the storm, trembling in the blast, with the drunkard- 
maker of Detroit. To insinuate that our forefathers 
secured their liberty by boycotting, by attempting to 
fire churches filled with women and children, is to insult 
the noblest dead of the nation. Later, in his en- 
deavor to extenuate the use of this language, Prof. 
Kent says in The Free Press : " The meeting to 
which my remarks were addressed was composed 
almost wholly of our most conservative and law-abid- 
ing citizens. There was no danger of exciting them to 
mob law." But Prof. Kent is a public man, the speech 
was made in a public place, it was printed in the public 
press, and he had no right to make a speech before that 
audience that he could not have made before any audi- 
ence in this country. " There was no danger of excit- 
ing them to mob law," but suppose that building had 
been full of the liquor-sellers and their tools in this 
city, would it have excited them to mob law? Does 
not every inference of the statement justify the use of 
force, of bloodshed, and of murder to defend the nefa- 
rious traffic ? 

I want to say, calmly and deliberately, that this is a 
free country ; our forefathers fought and died at Bunker 
Hill, at Brandy wine, at Yorktown, and starved at Val- 



188 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

ley Forge to build on this continent a republic. For a 
hundred years this country has prospered. 

The broadest discussion of all questions has been al- 
lowed. The will of the majority has been the control- 
ling power, and now at the close of the first century of 
our history, it sounds strange to hear men born in other 
countries, who have fled to this country to escape des- 
potisms, say to American business men : " You shall 
not think, you shall not act, you shall not follow your 
own conscientious convictions upon matters of public 
policy ; if you lay your finger upon a public evil we 
will boycott your business ; if you endeavor to destroy 
a public nuisance, we will burn your property ; if you 
endeavor to enforce the lav/ against law-breakers, we 
will murder you." Ladies and gentlemen, if there is 
any man in this country who is dissatisfied with Amer- 
ican institutions, with American ideas, with the Amer- 
ican methods of procedure in public matters, it will not 
cost him any more to buy a ticket from New York to 
go to the country from which he came, than it did to 
buy a ticket from that country to this. America is a 
free country. The freedom of action, the freedom of 
speech must be upheld, and all attempts at mob vio- 
lence, all attempts at anarchy, all attempts at outlawry, 
must be suppressed by the hand of law, and that law 
upheld and sustained by the people. The idea of a 
teacher of young men in a public institution like Ann 
Arbor justifying, even by implication, the burning of a 
Methodist church, where men and women were assem- 
bled to listen to the discussion of a public question, 
shows the dangerous and alarming tendencies of our 
times. The saloon is the hotbed of anarchy, the hot- 
bed of lawlessness, the hotbed of mob rule, the hotbed 
of murder, and those in favor of good order, those in 
favor of the enforcement of law, must strike down this 
enemy of the civilization and liberties of this country. 

It has been urged by the opponents of the amend- 
ment that if the amendment be adopted, there is no 
guarantee that the Legislature will enact laws to en- 
force it. The amendment, if adopted, will be adopted 
by a majority of the voters. If a majority of the voters 
are in favor, four-fifths of the women are certainly in 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. 1 89 

favor, and that would give a preponderance of senti- 
ment in favor of the enactment. In the State of Iowa 
the amendment, after being adopted, was declared un- 
constitutionally adopted by the Supreme Court of the 
State, but despite this fact the Legislature of the State 
enacted a stringent prohibitory law, and at each session 
since, the stringency of the law has increased. 

In Kansas and Rhode Island the same results fol- 
lowed the adoption of the law, and in Michigan if a 
majority of the voters of the State declare in favor of 
the amendment, it w r ill not be safe for any political 
party or any politician to defy the will of the people in 
this matter. This is a government of the people and a 
majority of the people must rule. Let politicians defy 
the will of the people and the political undertaker will 
not complain for want of business. 

In conclusion, let me urge that the grog-shop is the 
primary school of crime, pauperism, and vice. This is 
admitted. License and tax have been tried in this 
country and in Europe for hundreds of years, and have 
failed to diminish the evils resulting from the public 
bar-room. The only features of license and tax regula- 
tion, which are urged in their defence, are the prohibi- 
tory features, and if the prohibitory features are the 
only part of the license laws which can be defended, 
then why not reject the license features and make the 
laws wholly prohibitory ? The tax features of the law 
have failed. Mr. Duffield again and again concedes 
this in his speech. Urging its good features he says : 
"If we should run out into the country where they 
claim this temperance sentiment is so strong — although 
I don't believe there are many of them who know any- 
thing about it — they would find how it works." There- 
by conceding that it does not work in cities and that 
the people in the cities realize no benefits from the law. 

Again, he says : " It contains three elements — local op- 
tion, license, or prohibition. Where the community wants 
prohibition, and in the cities here this traffic cannot be 
suppressed or abolished, and when you look at the law 
and analyze it in that respect you will be astonished 
how much worth, how much merit, how much strength 
there is in our present tax law against the liquor traffic/' 



I90 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

But is it not strange that with the law working for 
years in Detroit, the people of Detroit do not realize the 
beneficial features it is claimed to possess? 

Again, he says : " I doubt very much whether any of 
our people here, except those who have given special 
attention to it, know how great the benefit of these 
provisions in the tax law are, to say nothing about 
what has been done." But the people here do not 
know that out of over 300 complaints against liquor- 
dealers in Detroit last year, but twenty-two of them 
have been tried, and that the rest are pigeon-holed or 
linger in the courts of the city. The trouble with 
Mr. Duffield's argument is that the tax does not 
work and that the ordinary machinery of government 
cannot work it. His constant iteration and reitera- 
tion that the people ought to ascertain the bene- 
ficial features and make it work, reminds me of the 
Irish porter who, at the Adams House, in Boston, 
was one night sent by the night clerk to accom- 
pany a gentleman to his room. After Pat had de- 
posited the baggage, the gentleman said : " I want to 
be called at six o'clock in the morning." The Irishman 
replied, " Faith, I go on at twelve and off at twelve. 
Do you think I will be sitting up all night to call you ? " 
" I don't care whether you call me or not, I want to be 
called." " Oh, you want I should lave word at the 
office ?" " Leave it where you please, only say that I 
am to be called." "AH right, sir," and the Irishman 
left. A few minutes later he went back and rapped on 
the door. The gentleman opened the door and said : 
" What do you want ? " " Faith, sir, for fear there 
might be some mistake about calling you I thought I 
would come back and tell you there is no need of calling 
a gentleman in this hotel. Do you see that little bunch 
up there with a knob in the middle (pointing to the 
electrical bell call), when you want to be called in the 
morning just turn over, put your thumb on that bunch 
and push, and the boy will come up and call you, sure." 

The tax law of this State, in the hands of the proper 
officers of the State, has been demonstrated to be un- 
workable, and the people are left to call themselves, 
and to perform the duties that other men are elected 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED, 19I 

to perform and paid for doing. After ten years of 
failure the people propose to repudiate the fraud, 
and Mr. Duffield hastens forward, to say in substance, 
that it is the duty of the people to create a Govern- 
ment inside the Government and work the fraud them- 
selves. 

In closing his speech, Mr. Duffield has seen fit to say 
that two banners have been erected in this campaign — 
the one, the banner of prohibition, the other the ban- 
ner of taxation and license — and by this he seeks to 
draw an invidious comparison between the followers of 
one banner, and the followers of the other. I am glad 
he has done this, for when he says, " All bad men are 
in favor of the amendment," it justifies me in showing 
what kind of people indorse him and his speech and 
how utterly reckless he is in his statements. I want to 
challenge his statement by saying : When, on the 4th of 
April, the vote on the amendment has been counted, 
one of two camps in this State will rejoice ; and, while 
I do not wish to insinuate that every man who votes 
against the amendment is a bad man, I do want to 
say that the bad men and the bad women in this State 
are not in favor of the amendment. 

Desiring to meet his empty statement with evidence 
which he could not break down, I sent a trusted de- 
tective to take a census of the gambling hells, the 
saloons, and the houses of ill-fame in Grand Rapids. 
He telegraphs me as follows : 

" Grand Rapids, March 26. 
"Visited professional gamblers, sixty-four against the amendment. 
Saloon-keepers, twenty-six against the amendment. Houses of ill- 
fame, six against the amendment. None for the amendment. ,, 

Another equally trusty officer working the city of 
Detroit visited the houses of ill-fame in this city to 
take a canvass of the inmates ; to show you their 
feeling, let me read the interviews, omitting the name 
of the keeper and the name of the street. If anybody 
doubts the correctness of these statements and will 
come on the platform at the close of the meeting, I 
will give them the name of the keeper and the number 
and name of the street : 

In the first house visited, the proprietor said : " Oh, 



I92 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

stuff! The amendment can never be carried. See what 
The Free Press said the other day ; it had about one- 
half of its paper filled with speeches against it, and with 
good big men here. Why, the Opera-House was packed 
with men who thought as they did. If carried, good- 
bye Detroit ! I arn off to some other place ; no drinks, 
no money here, and that is what I want. I tell you, 
lots of it is drunk in these houses, and if it was not for 
that, girls would be in hard luck, but the boys will beat 
it sure." 

The keeper of another house said : " No prohibition 
here. That Duffield meeting was the thing ! You 
can't do without it. Men will drink. Why, look, how 
many there are in the business, and they ain't going to 
shut up, and don't you forget it." 

In another house the proprietress said : " You can 
come here any time in the next ten years and get what 
you want, if you pay for it. Prohibition won't be car- 
ried and I know it. All the men say so. Why, you 
can't do it. When they want to drink they will do it, 
and those who don't want it will let it alone. Say, did 
you read the papers the other day ? You ought to see 
the speeches made by all the big men here. They say 
it can't be done — that license is right, and so it is." 

In another house : " I will bet you the drinks all 
around that the amendment won't carry. Too many 
want their drinks. See what a large amount is drunk 
in the sporting houses. That is how a good many of 
the men spend their money, having the girls to while 
away a few hours with. They take enough to make 
them feel good and generally behave themselves. Bet- 
ter for them to take it in a comfortable house than in 
saloons with a lot of dead-beats waiting to be treated. 
We pay our license and will have it." 

In another house : " I don't believe it can be carried. 
Too many want the stuff, and the best men in town 
patronize our house and like to treat the girls. It 
does no one any harm, and gives the men lots of pleas- 
ure to spend a social hour. Mark my words, you will 
never see prohibition in this State. The whiskey men 
have a good deal of money that is to be used to defeat 
it, and you bet they will do it. These politicians know 



THE DEFENCE ANSWERED. I93 

their business, and know where they get help on elec- 
tion day. The speeches of Duffield and Kent were 
just to the point." 

The proprietress of another house said : " It never 
can be carried. Look at what the big men say here. 
If it should be carried it will make our houses dull 
here. I have been here only a few months, but I have 
seen enough to convince me that a great many men 
come into houses, and are drunk or pretty well set up 
when they come, and when they wake up in the morn- 
ing in our room, curse and swear to find where they 
are. Of course it will be dull, but if the business is 
prohibited I guess it will be no good." 

A canvass of eighty saloons showed a unanimous 
vote against the amendment and a unanimous indorsa- 
tion of Duffield's and Kent's speeches. Mr. Duffield 
should not have invited this comparison, for the world 
knows that the professedly good and avowedly bad are 
working together, to defeat the amendment in Michigan. 

On the night of the 4th of April, if the amendment 
be defeated, where will the rejoicing be ? Down in the 
slums where bad men chink glasses with bad women ! 
In drinking houses and drinking hells, where mothers' 
boys are ruined ! In the saloons, where husbands are 
made brutes ! In bar-rooms, where fathers are wrecked ! 
But if the amendment be carried, there will not be a 
drunkard's wife or a drunkard's child who will not see 
the stars of hope breaking through the clouds of de- 
spair ! The church bells will ring, the moral people of 
the State will rejoice, and the angels in Heaven will 
sing an anthem over a State redeemed from the licensed 
promoters of vice, crime, and immorality ! 



13 



IX. 

WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 

An Address delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, Mass., Sunday, 

December 16, 1&83. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The temperance reform 
has for its object the development of manhood and 
womanhood along the lines of intelligence and con- 
science. A sound mind in a diseased and rotten body 
is the exception, not the rule. The use of alcoholic 
drinks by persons in health, causes muscular and nerv- 
ous degeneration and disease. Hence the temperance 
reform aims to prevent the use of alcoholic drinks, and 
by such prevention, avoid the effects of such use. 

Alcoholic drunkenness is caused by the use of alco- 
holic liquors. The results which temperance workers 
wish to prevent are caused by alcohol affecting nerve 
and brain tissue. Bring a barrel of whiskey into this 
Temple and place it on this platform, call up Dr. Ellis 
and have him read and pray over it ; then let this large 
audience, with their different temperaments, drink it, 
and there would be a fight before they left the hall. 
It is not the place where it is sold, it is not the man 
who sells it, it is alcohol affecting brain and nerve tissue 
that produces the results which temperance reform 
seeks to prevent. 

To prevent the use of alcholic drinks, the person 
must be treated in his dual nature, as individual and 
citizen. It is of the person as a citizen Twish to 
speak to-day in order to develop the reasons for the 
interference by Government with the alcoholic liquor 
trade. 

That intemperance is a withering, blighting curse, is 
axiomatic. That the alcoholic liquor trade is an ulcer 
on social, civil, and business life, no sane man dares 

(*94) 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. I95 

deny. The person who thinks it necessary to stand 
upon the public platform to prove that the use of alco- 
holic liquors causes more misery, pauperism, and crime 
than any other or all other social customs, insults the 
intelligence of his audience. 

A contagious disease breaks out in your city, your 
people have suffered from its ravages in former yearSj 
yet the cry goes up to your board of health : " What 
can we do ? " The board of health hires Tremont 
Temple, and places on this platform an eminent phy- 
sician to answer your question. He stands here for an 
hour to describe the workings of the disease on the 
human system, and after he has described all its loath- 
some characteristics, tells you, "You had better be 
careful and not catch it." Would not the disgusted 
and impatient audience cry: " Doctor, we do not need 
to be convinced of the terrible nature of the disease ! 
We know that, because the disease has visited our city 
before. What we want is a remedy for the disease. 
The question is not: Is it a contagious disease? — of 
that we are thoroughly conversant, — but, What shall 
we do to prevent the spread of a contagious disease ? 
Simply a question of remedy, doctor." So in dealing 
with the national disease of intemperance, the people 
need no additional proof of the horrid results and 
nature of the plague. It has crowded too many poor- 
houses, asylums, and penitentiaries, filled the streets of 
too many cities with its debauched and ruined victims ; 
blighted the flowers of hope and trust and love in too 
many homes ; turned too many days into pandemoniums 
and nights into hells, for an intelligent people to remain 
ignorant of its nature and effects. The people are 
satisfied that intemperance is a terrible disease, threat- 
ening the nations life. From Cape Cod to Cape Men- 
docino, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf, they recognize 
the fact. 

" Intemperance is threatening our civilization and 
liberties," is an axiom. The question remaining to 
be settled is, what are the remedies for the disease? 
Certain well-settled propositions will enable us to start 
right. Experience and science have these statements : 

1. Alcoholic beverages are a product of man's work, 



I96 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

consequently the desire for, and disease resulting from 
the use of, must follow their manufacture. 

2. Alcoholic drinks being a manufactured curse, the 
supply must precede and create the demand for them. 

3. The use of alcoholic liquors in all ages and nations 
has been proportionate to the public popular facilities 
for obtaining the supply. 

4. The effect of alcoholic drinks on the habitual user 
are, primarily, muscular and nervous degeneration and 
disease ; secondarily, weakened intellect, sensibility, and 
will. 

5. The treatment of the alcoholic patient must be 
such as to arouse the weakened will to force the 
patient to wholly abstain from all alcoholic liquors. 
This accomplished, the sick body must be treated with 
physical remedies, and the sick soul with spiritual 
remedies. 

6. The old rule, " an ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure/' is truer in this case than in any other. 

Intemperance (alcoholism) injures primarily the indi- 
vidual, but the individual is a social unit, and anything 
that injures him injures society, of which he is a part, 
and while the Christian and philanthropist would work 
to save the victim because he is one for whom Christ 
died, society must work to save him because he is a 
social unit. 

Man is a social animal. Society is necessary for his 
development. To isolate him is to destroy him as an 
intellectual being, and to degrade him to the level of 
the brute. The effects of solitary confinement in the 
prisons of France and the United States, the history of 
persons lost on uninhabited islands, all prove that man 
was created as a social being ; that, removed from his 
fellows, he ceases to be human. Therefore, any system 
of ethics is weak and defective which fails to recognize 
the dual nature of man as an individual responsible to 
God, and as a social unit responsible to society made 
necessary by his very nature. Man is dependent, and 
his individuality must bend to that fact. Perfect nat- 
ural liberty means liberty in accord with nature. The 
liberty or freedom of will that has a tendency to destroy 
society, and thereby deprive man of social intercourse, 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 197 

which nature has made imperative for his development, 
is opposed to the laws of nature and of nature's God — 
and wrong. 

The ability of society to fulfil its high function de- 
pends almost wholly upon the character of the social 
units. This Temple is a brick building. The unit of 
the structure is the individual brick in the wall. The 
strength of the building depends somewhat upon its 
form, and the work done upon it ; but all architectural 
calculation is based upon the strength and durability 
of the material which is used. Suppose that the archi- 
tect had drawn the plan, the master-workman and ma- 
sons been ready to do good work when the material 
came, and an examination of the material had shown it 
to be poor, weak, soft, would the men have gone for- 
ward with the building ? No ! The strength of the 
building depends upon the strength of the material, 
and it would be worse than useless to erect a building 
of weak, poor material. If it would be useless to erect 
a building of poor material, would it not-be criminal to 
allow persons to weaken and destroy the material of a 
structure already erected, when its destruction means 
the destruction of the building and the thwarting of 
the purpose for which it was erected ? 

Society is a structure — its material composed of rea- 
sonable, ethical human beings. Any business or custom 
which develops or strengthens the God-nature of man, 
develops and strengthens society, of which he is a part, 
and the converse of the proposition is equally true. 
Any business or custom which develops the animal na- 
ture of man at the expense of the intellectual God- 
nature, weakens and degrades society. To fulfil its 
mission, society must establish and maintain institu- 
tions and customs, necessary for man's development, 
comfort, and happiness. Trade is a social institution, 
born of society, developed by society, and subjected to 
society, to assist in promoting the interests that neces- 
sitate society. 

This statement of fundamental truths is expressed by 
the axiom : " The use of alcoholic liquors in all ages 
and nations has been proportionate to the public popu- 
lar facilities for obtaining the same," or, in other words, 



I98 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

it depends on the open alcoholic liquor trade. The al- 
coholic liquor trade is a social institution, subject to 
the social law governing all trade, viz., to assist in pro- 
moting the interest that necessitates society. True, 
millions of dollars are invested in it, and thousands 
of men depend upon it for a livelihood ; but its mag- 
nitude only gives it greater power to do evil, if its 
results are bad. It is entitled to the same protec- 
tion from society as other trades, if its work produces 
the same social results. Only gravest charges, fully 
sustained, can justify its destruction ; but if charges 
sufficient are sustained, its very magnitude must 
bar the dealers from pleading the " baby act " as 
an excuse for their crimes. They can only be held 
responsible for the results of their trade, but they must 
come into the peopled court and answer for them. 
The open bar-room, exposing the supply of liquors, 
with tempting signs and alluring accompaniments, 
constantly creates a demand where no demand existed 
before. Two men passing along the street, with no 
thought of drinking, see the tempting sign, and step 
into the public popular place and drink ; not that they 
care to drink, but to be social. Several young men en- 
ter a saloon to play billiards. They do not care for 
liquor, but " when they are with Romans they must do 
as Romans do," and they drink to be social. The busi- 
ness, outlawed and driven into holes, would be followed 
by the victims it had already ruined and chained, but 
not by the boys of the land who care nothing for drink. 
Drinking, in its incipiency, is the result of social cus- 
toms ; in its advanced stages, of diseased, nervous, and 
muscular conditions, which create an unnatural craving, 
falsely called an appetite. The treatment of the victim 
as an individual is one part of the work of the reform, 
but the fact of his relation to society, and society's re- 
lation to him, must not be lost sight of. If alcoholic 
drinks injure the user, then they injure society, of which 
the user is a part, and it is a matter of self-defence for 
society to discourage their use. Granted the effects of 
alcoholic drinks on the habitual user, are : — primarily, 
muscular and nervous degeneration and disease — sec- 
ondarily, weakened intellect, sensibility, and will, and it 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 1 99 

follows that the individual thus injured, being a social 
unit, society must suffer from the use of alcoholic 
liquors ; and that the public bar-room, by stimulating 
the use, becomes an enemy to society, and, therefore, 
subject to trial, conviction, and destruction. Society 
tries men for their acts, — institutions for their results. 
If the liquor traffic builds up its customer socially, 
morally, intellectually, and financially, no argument can 
justify its overthrow; but if it tears down its customer 
socially, morally, intellectually, and financially, no soph- 
istry can justify society in continuing it. I hope I 
have liquor-dealers before me to-day, and if so, they 
will please correct me if 1 misstate the results of their 
traffic. 

Four workmen were paid off last night. Each re- 
ceived twenty-five dollars. On the way home, one 
spent a large part of his money in a dry-goods store, 
©ne in a boot and shoe store, one in a hardware store, 
and the other commenced last night, and is continuing 
to-day to spend it in a saloon. Each of these men has 
a family to provide for and educate. Next Wednesday 
let us visit the homes of these men. We enter the 
home of the man who spent his money with the dry- 
goods merchant, and ask what his family received in 
exchange for his hard-earned dollars. His wife would 
show us the new dresses, and say : " We needed the 
clothes, the merchant needed the money, so we traded," 
— an exchange of values benefiting both parties. The 
same answer, simply varied by the articles purchased, 
would be given by the wives of the men who traded at 
the boot and hardware stores ; but when we enter the 
home of the saloon customer to ask, the misery, 
wretchedness, and poverty would answer before the 
lips could utter the question. The saloon takes 
material values from the customer, and returns what 
is worse than nothing. Far better for the man if 
the drunkard-maker had simply robbed him, for then 
he would have had a clear head and sound muscles to 
go on and provide for his family, — while by pur- 
chasing and drinking liquor he is temporarily unfitted 
for- work, and sent home a maddened brute to abuse 
and insult those he should love and protect. To illus- 



200 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

trate more fully let me ask a liquor-dealer a hypo- 
thetical question : " Mr. Dealer, suppose a young man, 
standing high in social and business circles, commenced 
to patronize you to-day, and does so for the next ten 
years, all the while increasing the time spent in your 
saloon, and the money spent at your bar. At the end 
of the ten years, what will you have done for that 
man in return for all the money and time he has given 
you ?" Must not the dealer answer: " He would have 
been better socially, morally, intellectually, and finan- 
cially if he had never entered a saloon." Another, 
please : " Suppose a man with a family patronizes you 
the same way, for the same time, what will you do for 
his family in return for the father's money and time?" 
The answ r er must be : " The family would be better off, 
and the children would have a better chance for hap- 
piness, if the father had never entered a saloon." No 
liquor-dealer dares deny that the whole tendency of 
the saloon is to degrade its customers. The bar-room, 
under whatever name, is a nursery where criminals and 
paupers are bred — a cradle where vice is fondled and 
rocked. Its path through the ages is stained with 
blood and tears, and made horrible by the countless 
skeletons of its victims, who, decoyed by its influence 
from the up-hiil path of denial and duty, into the by- 
way of sensual pleasure and drunkenness, have then 
been dragged, by the cravings of diseased bodies, in 
disgrace and madness, to dishonored death. Judged 
by its own record, the traffic is a curse to all the higher 
elements of manhood and womanhood, a disgrace to 
our Christian civilization, and an ulcer on the nation's 
life. 

That the liquor traffic, and the men employed in it, 
constantly outrage that part of society not engaged in 
the traffic, follows from what has been stated, and the 
punishment and destruction of the traffic must come 
from the society founded on the relations of right — 
the State. It is the duty of the State to destroy this 
traffic, and thereby prevent its results. 

If I should ask a school-boy, " What is Massachu- 
setts?" he, would probably get an atlas and say, 
" Here is a picture of it." Of course the child would 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 201 

be wrong, for the map would be a picture of the house 
where Massachusetts lives. Land and water do not 
constitute the State. They were here before Massa- 
chusetts came. Birds do not organize States. Beasts 
do not organize States. A State is a society, and a 
society, as before stated, is composed of ethical, reason- 
able human beings. The science of its life and powers 
is called politics. The power which it exercises is in- 
herent in the individuals that compose it. It is the 
duty of every person to understand the science of the 
right use of the powers delegated to the State, or, 
politics. The old cry, " Keep moral questions out of 
politics," is the most damnable political heresy ever 
taught by empty-headed demagogues. In this country 
every man is a political factor, bound by his honor and 
patriotism to do his duty, on all occasions, for the up- 
building and development of humanity. Every influ- 
ence that makes the man better makes the Government 
better, and to keep a reform out of politics, it must be 
buried so it shall not influence the individual who is 
a unit of the State. What the country needs in its 
politics is more school-houses, prayer-meetings, and 
pulpits, and less saloons, gambling hells, and houses of 
prostitution. Politics, made respectable, is the great 
need of the times. The effects of the use of alcoholic 
liquors on the individual as a social being, would justify 
the State in destroying any trade that encouraged its 
use, but the political effects of the use make such de- 
struction imperative. 

A pure ballot-box, made pure by intelligent electors, 
is necessary if the Republic is to live. A man who 
will corrupt the ballot-box is a traitor to the Govern- 
ment. A man who will buy a vote will sell his vote 
if he gets elected. A man who will corrupt a voter, 
will accept a bribe if he succeed in winning official 
position. But notwithstanding these admitted truths, 
voting in our large centres of population is a farce, and 
an honest count a thing of the past. For years the 
question asked of Presidential candidates has been, 
" Can he carry New York State ? " This means, " Can 
he carry New York City ? " or, in other words, " Will 
the liquor traffic of New York support him ? " The 



202 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

infected political centres of the cities are the slums. 
A slum is licensed grog-shops gone to seed. 

It is election morning. Here stands an American 
workman in front of his cottage home. Inside are wife 
and baby boy. The workman owns his home, has a 
good job, is sober, intelligent, happy. Offer him ten 
dollars for his vote and he would knock you down. He 
is a man, with a man's honor and conscience. In the 
hands of such men the ballot-box is safe. To-morrow 
let the same man enter a saloon and commence to 
drink, and for ten years take the same course of polit- 
ical training the saloon gives its customers, and at the 
end of that time graduate a sot. Election morning 
comes and finds him in front of the tenement where: 
poverty has driven his wife, who takes in washing and' 
does the most menial work to support herself and chil- 
dren. He is a drunkard, ragged, dirty, hungry, and^ 
worse still, the diseased craving for liquor almost drives 
him wild. He has no money, no employment, and he 
could not do work if it was offered him ; conscience is 
stupefied, will-power gone. A villain offers him five 
dollars for his vote and he sells it. Such are the polit- 
ical results of the alcoholic liquor traffic. A corrupt 
ballot-box means corrupt voters. To pass laws to 
guard against corruption of the ballot-box, and license 
institutions to corrupt voters, is working at the wrong 
end. You cannot expect a fountain to rise higher than 
its source. The effect of alcoholic drinks on the user 
makes him, to a certain extent, the slave of the liquor- 
dealer who will supply the stimulant his diseased sys- 
tem craves. 

Dishonest politicians have long recognized this fact, 
and leave money with the dealer, with instructions to 
" set up the drinks and fix things with the boys." To 
such an extent has this corruption of the voter in centres 
of population been carried, that intelligent thinkers, like 
Kasson of Iowa, and Winchell of Michigan, do not 
hesitate to pronounce our form of government a failure 
when applied to great cities. The user of alcoholic stim- 
ulants is not only unfitted as a voter, but for such other 
public duties, as witness, juror, or officer. Four thou- 
sand bar-rooms in the city of Boston, open six days in 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 203 

the week and eighteen hours each day, are constantly- 
turning out men thus unfitted for their duties as citi- 
zens and electors. That the State should destroy the 
liquor traffic, has ceased to be a debatable question ; 
that the question must be determined by political ac- 
tion, the liquor-dealers themselves have made certain. 
They are not content to carry on their business as 
other tradesmen do, but have banded themselves to- 
gether as political autocrats, and decreed the death of 
any party that refuses to be their pliant tool. They 
have drawn the sword and thrown away the scabbard. 

In the year 1875, Louis Schade, attorney of the Beer 
Brewers' Association, and editor of the Washington 
Sentinel, said : 

" If we find that one or the other political party is against us, we 
must support the opposition party that is not against us. The princi- 
ple of self -protection must, in such instances, be our only guide— first 
beer, and then politicians. 

" Support that party that supports you, and go against that which 
wants to destroy you." 

In August, 1874, the representatives of the liquor in- 
terests of Michigan met in convention, and recorded 
themselves in these words : 

"Resolved, That we believe that national legislation can be secured 
by co-operation and concert of action, and we hereby pledge ourselves 
to make this issue one of paramount importance to all others." 

The following declaration and instruction is from the 
Liquor Dealers Advocate : 

" Resolved, That we will support all political papers advancing the 
true principles of liberty. 

" Resolved, That we find it necessary, in a business point of view, 
to patronize only such business men as will work hand in hand with 
us." 

In August, 1867, the beer advocates of Chicago met 
in mass convention, and, after the passage of resolu- 
tions denouncing Sunday and temperance laws, passed 
the following : 

"Resolved, That we firmly stand as one man by these declarations, 
and that no party consideration shall lead us to indorse a platform, or 



204 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

vote for a man, whose course will be in the least doubtful on these 
conditional points." 

The ninth National Beer Congress, held in Newark, 
N.J., June 2, 1869, adopted this : 

" Resolved, That we hereby reiterate and reaffirm as our standing 
creed and unchangeable purpose, to use all honorable means to 
deprive puritanical and temperance men of the power which they 
have so long held in councils of the political parties of this country. 
And that, for this purpose, we will support no man for any office who 
is identified with this illiberal and narrow-minded element." 

At the 13th National Beer Brewers' Association, held 
in Cleveland, Ohio, June 4, 1878, the president, in 
the last words of the opening address, said : " The 
last Presidential campaign has shown us what unity 
among us can do. Let our votes and our work in the 
future be heard from in every direction. " 

Thus an examination of the causes, nature, and 
results of the disease, shows the necessity of State 
action. 

An examination of the purposes and powers of the 
State, shows its power and right to act. 

An examination of the utterances of the conventions 
representing the traffic, shows that the State is given 
the alternative of destroying the traffic, or becoming 
the vassal "of the liquor organizations, which are yearly 
growing more powerful by destruction of the citizens. 

Remember, the use of alcoholic drkiks, in all ages 
and nations, has been proportionate to the public popu- 
lar facilities for obtaining the supply. 

If the State wishes to diminish the use, it must 
destroy the public places where the citizen is tempted 
to use alcoholic liquors. 

In the Ohio campaign a leading political speaker 
said, in a public speech : " There is no harm in a glass 
of beer per se." The next night a gentleman asked me 
if there was; and I, using the answer of my friend, 
Geo. W. Bain, said, " Per se means by itself. Certainly 
there is no harm in a glass of beer by itself. Place a 
glass of beer on a shelf, and let it remain there, and it 
is per se, and will harm no one ; but if you take it from 
the shelf, and turn it inside a man, then it is no longer 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 20$ 

per se." The prohibitionists agree with the Ohio judge. 
He says : " There is no harm in a glass of beer per se." 
We believe the same thing ; and are trying to keep the 
accursed thing per se for all time, and out of the stom- 
achs of men. 

To do this work the State is asked to use no new 
power ; simply to extend its police power over poisoned 
drinks as it now does over poisoned foods. This power 
is the ability which the State has to protect its own 
political health. In our Republic all power, not 
properly delegated to the General Government, is re- 
served to the States, and this police power is one of 
the reservations. In its exercise, the State should be 
governed by its own nature and functions. The State 
is a political body. The power to exercise it is inherent 
in the people who compose it, and is by them delegated 
to be used for the public good. The power of the 
State to accomplish the object that necessitates its 
existence, depends upon its own health. The State 
must be healthy as a whole ; and this can only be 
when its members — counties, towns, villages, and cities 
— are themselves healthy. The tendency of vice and 
crime is to congregate. " Birds of a feather flock 
together/' The tendency of society, then, is for bad 
centres to become worse, and good centres better. But 
the State is a whole, and disease in one part means bad 
health in other parts of the political organism. A man 
cannot be healthy who has a fever-sore on the skin, an 
ulcer on the arm, and a cancer on the face ; neither can a 
State be healthy with the political ulcers caused by the 
liquor traffic located on its joints — the great cities. 
The political health of the State can only be main- 
tained by bringing its whole vital power to bear on 
the diseased centres. 

This leads us to an objection to one method of State 
dealing with the liquor traffic, viz., the delegation to 
towns, cities, and counties of the State, power to pro- 
hibit the traffic, known as " local option." Counties, 
towns, and cities are not independent political organ- 
isms, but simply members or parts of the political body 
— the State. They assist it in performing its functions, 
as the legs and arms of a man assist him. The moral 



206 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

and social conditions of the cities affect the whole 
State. The elector of a city votes as an elector of the 
State. The corruption in a voter in a city, means the 
corruption of the State. The legislator elected as the 
tool of the slums in the cities, assists in making laws 
for the whole State. 

The political health of New York City has injured 
the political health of New York State for years. With 
the tendency of vice to congregate, apply the local 
option principle to the other forms of political and 
moral disease. If Brighamite Mormons establish a 
town and have a majority of the voters, let them 
license polygamy. If prostitutes and their followers 
are in majority in the city, let them license the social 
evil. If gamblers and their cappers are in majority 
in the city, let them license gambling. The objection 
to this would be, that since the State is a society of 
justice, the granting to vile men and women power to 
control in centres where they congregate, would weaken 
the power of society to do its work ; besides, the effect 
of these vices is m no sense local, and how can the 
State in justice give the vicious in cities the power to 
injure the moral people of the country? The liquor 
traffic, like all other vile institutions, tends to centralize. 
It is leaving the country towns and getting in cities 
where, by its debauched following, it makes and un- 
makes the officers who have in charge the enforcement 
of law. The saloon, by its following, elects the city 
government, the city government appoints the city 
police, the police arrest the saloon-keeper for violating 
the law, a saloon-keeper demands protection from the 
government that he elected, and the government 
removes the policeman from the force. The people 
object, but how can you expect a creature (the govern- 
ment) to be greater than the creator (the saloon- 
keeper) ? The slums of the city are simply great ulcers 
on the body of the State. There is not vitality 
enough in the cities to remedy the low condition to 
which they have been brought by the slums. The only 
hope is to bring the vitality of the whole body to bear 
on the diseased centres. The objections to local op- 
tion, are: 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 207 

1st. The law does not make liquor-selling a crime, 
but teaches that a majority vote of the people can 
make it either right or wrong. The effect of such a 
law is to constantly demoralize public sentiment, 
because law is always an educator. If it is based on 
right principles, it educates right ; if on wrong princi- 
ples, it educates wrong. 

2d. It applies to the municipality, which, if it adopt 
prohibition, may be surrounded by others granting 
license. The outlawed liquor-seller knows if he can 
bring the law into contempt the people will vote for 
license next year, and everything is favorable for such 
violation as will bring it into contempt. Under such 
conditions, prohibition can never have a fair trial. 

3d. Citizens of a town will say, " Drinking men 
never come to a prohibition town to trade, if there is a 
license town equally near, and we cannot afford to kill 
our town even for principle." 

4th. Local option delegates power to a municipality 
to prohibit the traffic, but does not give the municipality 
the power to fix an adequate penalty for violations. A 
local option law is a license law, with license law penal- 
ties for violation, which are wholly inadequate to en- 
force it. Penalties sufficient to destroy the traffic will 
never be made until the State recognizes the business as 
an outlaw and enemy. License recognizes it as a good 
thing, regulated to destroy bad incidentals. 

5th. Local option degrades the struggle into a per- 
sonal fight. It is the citizen of the town against the 
saloon-keeper of the town. Many business men who 
would vote for State action, will not vote for local pro- 
hibition, because it brings the fight into their local af- 
fairs. 

6th. It is an unsafe principle to introduce into munic- 
ipal matters, because it subordinates all business inter- 
ests to the one issue of saloon or no saloon. If a first- 
class business man was nominated for the council, or 
mayoralty, who favored license, and a man poorly qual- 
ified be nominated for the same position who opposed 
license, prohibitionists, as a matter of principle, would 
be compelled to vote for the man poorly qualified, 
claiming that a less evil than licensed grog-shops. Each 



2o8 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

year this issue would be forced. Neighbors who should 
be friends become enemies, all because an issue of na- 
tional character has by cowardly politicians been forced 
into municipal elections, to be fought over every year, 
with the knowledge that the municipality can never 
settle it, and the certainty that, though prohibition be 
adopted, the Legislature can change it at any time, 
without consulting the municipality. 

7th. Prohibition can never be fairly tested by local 
option. Local option is determined by annual elec- 
tions. No law changing the social customs of the peo- 
ple, and destroying a social institution, can be honestly 
tested in a single year. 

8th. The people in the cities where the evil element 
controls, are entitled to protection by the State. Is it a 
truly brave man and leader who would say to the 
drunkard's wife and child in Cincinnati, " I regret that 
you live in the city, but as you do, I see no help for 
you, for the saloon-keepers control the city, and I am 
in favor of local option " ? It is treason to God and hu- 
manity, to advocate the policy of the State turning the 
helpless in the great cities over into the hands of the 
drunkard-makers, by local option. Ohio is a State. 
Every home in it is entitled to State protection. 

To advocate local option is to make the State a non- 
entity. We said this when, in obedience to the de- 
mands of the liquor ring, the Legislature turned 
the Christian Sunday over into the hands of the saloon- 
keepers to be destroyed, and we say it now, when it is 
proposed to desert the workers in our great cities, and 
turn their homes over to the vile elements. 

When a State has passed a local option law, workers 
should work for local prohibition under it, not as an 
end, but as a means to accomplish an end, and this is 
best done by making the fight for State and National 
prohibition. The drunkard-makers always follow and 
take possession of the camp abandoned by prohibi- 
tionists as they advance. Where temperance men 
fought for license, drunkard-makers fought for free 
beer and whiskey ; where temperance men fought for 
high license, drunkard-makers fought for low license ; 
and when temperance men declared for State and 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 2CK} 

National prohibition, the drunkard-makers and their 
allies shouted for high license. In this reform the 
greater takes with the less. In a State where a hot 
and bitter war is waged for State prohibition, more 
towns are carried for local prohibition than in States 
where the fight is allowed to degenerate into a selfish 
local contest. Where a State has not local option, the 
worker is foolish indeed who will petition or work for 
it. The idea that a traffic can be made rirfit in one 
part of the State, and wrong in another, is absurd. 

The system of restriction by license for the evils of 
the traffic, has been thoroughly tried in nearly every 
State in the Union, and has everywhere proved itself 
utterly impracticable and defective. The only redeem- 
ing qualities of the system are the prohibitory features 
it contains, and these are rendered useless by the State 
license or permission, granted to the few, in considera- 
tion of the few sharing their profits with it. The State, 
by an attempt to regulate and restrict, admits that the 
traffic is one dangerous to the true interests of society. 
Of this fact society is thoroughly convinced, and the 
only sensible rule of State action is : If an institution 
is wholly evil, the State should outlaw and destroy it ; 
if an institution is productive of both good and evil 
results, it is the duty of the State to license it and 
regulate it, so as to destroy the evil and promote the 
good. Possession is nine points of the law. License 
gives the traffic possession and creates a presumption 
that its rules are legal, and places upon the people the 
burden of disproving the presumption of innocence, 
and establishing the exception over the rule. The 
system is based on incorrect principles, is utterly im- 
practicable, and never was and never will be enforced. 
There are more saloons selling liquor in Chicago with- 
out license under the license system than in any pro- 
hibitory city in the world, and this in addition to the 
licensed saloons. In this cultured city of Boston, I am 
informed by good authority, that there are more than 
one thousand places which sell liquor without license, 
in addition to over two thousand licensed places. In 
Nebraska, under high license, drug-stores almost equal- 
ling the saloons in number, sell liquors as a beverage 

14 



210 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

without license to do so. The system, wherever tried, 
has been a failure, and it is utterly useless to waste any 
more time or money trying to make it work. 

I am aware that some of my friends would say : 
" Men must organize to enforce law." Certainly, but 
who organize? Burke said : " When bad men conspire, 
good men must combine." The State, through its 
machinery, the Government, gives the only safe method 
of enforcing law, and only when a conspiracy exists of 
such formidable character as to prevent the operation 
of the Government, is a private organization of citizens 
justifiable. The Government is the State machinery to 
enforce law, and every tax-payer is taxed to pay for 
such enforcement. Public officers take oaths to enforce 
laws ; if they do not do it, the statute which creates 
the office provides for the removal of the incumbent, 
and the remedy is not the organization to do the offi- 
cer's work, but proceedings to remove and punish the 
officer for his neglect of duty. This people does not 
need or want two Governments to enforce the law. 
Demonstrate that two Governments, one public, one 
private, one supported by public tax, one by private 
contribution, are necessary to enforce law in this 
country, and you have proved our republican Govern- 
ment to be fatally weak and defective. You say to 
me: " It is your duty to give money to help enforce 
law." I answer : " I pay taxes to support a Govern- 
ment to enforce law, and if that is a failure, and can- 
not do so, the remedy is not to create a Government 
within itself, but to find what are its defects and remedy 
them." 

If a law is defied, it is proof either that the law is 
not public opinion crystallized into public will ; that 
bad men have conspired to thwart the will of the peo- 
ple ; that bad men are in office ; or that the law is de- 
fective and cannot be enforced by the ordinary ma- 
chinery of Government. The remedy for the first con- 
dition is to repeal the law; for the second, is for good 
men to combine ; for the third, is to arouse the vitality 
of the political system, so that bad men will be driven 
from office ; for the fourth, to substitute a good law for 
the bad one. No man will claim that a license law is 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 211 

in advance of public opinion, so the first reason does 
not apply to this case. There is absolutely no proof 
that any conspiracy exists among the liquor men to 
defy the license laws except in a few places like Chi- 
*cago. On the contrary, all of their great organizations 
have again and again declared in favor of license. That 
liquor-dealers all violate the license laws is certain ; but 
they do it as individuals, not as parties to a conspiracy: 
consequently the second reason does not apply to li- 
cense laws, although it does to prohibitory laws, for all 
the liquor organizations were brought into existence to 
destroy prohibition. 

The real cause of the failure of license laws is, that 
the laws are defective and cannot be enforced, and that 
bad men are in office. The remedy, then, is plain : sub- 
stitute a good for the bad law, and kick bad men out of 
office. When an officer neglects his duties, the remedy 
is not to do his work for him, but to punish him for his 
neglect of duty. 

In Kansas, when corrupt officials refused to prosecute 
liquor outlaws, the Kansas State Temperance Union, 
led by the Hon. A. B. Campbell, did not undertake to 
perform the officers' work, but it commenced proceed- 
ings against the rebellious city government and corrupt 
officers. The result was, the corrupt officers were driven 
from power, public conscience was quickened, public 
faith in the power of the State to enforce its laws was 
strengthened, and the law will be enforced in that State. 
Every officer knows if he neglects his duty he will be 
proceeded against, and* if found guilty, removed from 
his position. The law is better enforced in the city of 
Quincy than in any other city in Massachusetts, and it 
is done by the Hon. Henry Foxton as an officer, not as 
a private citizen. In his own words, " The remedy is 
to elect good men to office, ,, and he might have added, 
f* to prosecute any officer who fails to do his duty." 
) Anything else is a quack remedy, which will injure 
Wd not help. No evidence of a conspiracy to defy the 
license law exists, and if the State cannot enforce the 
law against single individuals, it is positive the law is a 
fraud, and that all time spent trying to make it operate 
is wasted. Certainly no evidence of a conspiracy exists 



212 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

such as would justify private individuals organizing a 
government within the existing one to perform the 
works of the State, and try by extra constitutional 
means to make a law effective which the State, by a 
hundred years' trial, through the ordinary and legiti- 
mate channels of enforcement, has proved absolutely 
inoperative and bad. These statements made by those 
organizations, that the people are to blame for not en- 
forcing the license law, are false. The trouble is with 
the law, not with the people. License laws have had a 
fair trial for more than a hundred years in this country, 
and have utterly failed to accomplish the object for 
which they were passed. The temperance men upheld 
these laws and gave money and time to make them op- 
erative, and only abandoned them after years of trial 
had proved them wholly useless. If the license system 
had proved practical, there would never have been a 
thought of prohibition ; and these people who come 
around, and, with an air of " I'll tell you how to do it," 
inform temperance workers that they must enforce the 
license laws, simply air their ignorance of temperance 
history and their superficial knowledge of the reform. 
The license laws are fatally defective both in principle 
and construction, and the statement frequently made, 
" There is no need of further legislation until the pres- 
ent law is enforced," is idlest nonsense. Let me say 
again, the fault is with the law, not with the 
people. The blame laid on the people for not 
making a bad law operate well, shows a shallow 
thinker or a tricky demagogue who wants to lay the 
blame where it does not belong, and thereby have 
an excuse for not perfecting legislation. " If the 
law is in fault, then the law must be amended, and 
that will make the liquor-sellers mad ; but if we can 
take the blame from off the law and place it on its en- 
forcement, then we are safe," say the politicians; and 
many a law and order league has received support from 
these men for the purpose of creating a false public 
opinion as to the real cause of a failure, and thereby 
give a plausible reason for inaction. I object to a law 
and order league organized to enforce a license law as 
a license law, because no evidence exists that would 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 213 

justify its organization, and because it creates the false 
impression that the fault is with the people and not 
with the law. They constantly say ; " Enforce the 
present law before you ask for more." As well have 
said in years gone by to the farmer : " You should 
make this old mower do good work before you get a 
new one. ,, Would he not have answered : " Fool, if it 
did good work I should not want a new one. I have 
tried it for years, it does not half cut the grass, and I 
am not going to waste any more time or spoil any more 
work fussing with it." His answer is good sense. As 
well say: "We have tried for a century to cut down 
this tree with a beetle ; it will not work, but we must 
make it work before we get an axe ; we have tried for a 
century to dip up water with a sieve ; it will not work, 
but we must make it work before we get a bucket," as 
to say : " License has failed to work well for a hundred 
years, but we must make it work well before we ask for 
prohibition." Away with such twaddle! If license 
works well, prohibition is unnecessary ; and it is only 
because license has proved a failure that prohibition is 
sought. To hope to destroy the liquor traffic with 
license laws reminds me of the man who was nightly 
disturbed by the barking of his neighbor's dog. Night 
after night he endured until at last with patience ex- 
hausted, he jumped out of bed in his night-clothes and 
rushed out into the snow. He was gone for a long 
time, and his wife, alarmed, left her bed to look for him. 
Opening the door she saw him standing in the snow 
holding the dog, " What are you doing?" she cried. 
Through chattering teeth he answered, u I intend to 
hold this dog in the snow until I freeze him." 

Every dollar given to make license work is virtually 
given to prove that prohibition is unnecessary. As a 
temperance man I formerly believed in license, and gave 
both time and money to make the system operate so as 
to destroy the evils of intemperance. The time and mon- 
ey were wasted. You ask me, " Will you help enforce 
a license law now ? " Certainly, as a citizen I will do a 
citizen's duty in helping to enforce all laws on the stat- 
ute-book, but as a temperance man I will not give one 
cent of money, or one minute of time in trying to make 



214 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

the license fraud operate as a temperance measure. 
As a temperance measure it has utterly failed, and the 
liquor men,, recognizing that fact, have adopted the 
system as theirs, and work for and defend it. All 
efforts of temperance workers to make it a success sim- 
ply deceive the people, and lead them to expect and 
hope that something good may come of the license 
system. Temperance workers should attack the false 
system, and demonstrate to the people how utterly 
worthless it is, for when the people are convinced 
of the fact they will demand effective legislation, and 
not until then. You ask, " Will not leagues organ- 
ized to enforce license laws do good ? " Yes, they 
will demonstrate to the people the fact that the li- 
cense laws are so vicious, that the State cannot en- 
force them, even when assisted by a private organization 
of citizens. 

The law and order league may be necessary to 
enforce a prohibitory law, because of the great organ- 
izations whose only purpose is to defy it ; but I fear 
the effect of organizations, whose avowed purpose is to 
assume the duties which belong to the Government. 
Three of these private organizations frequently appear 
within the State, viz., the mob, the vigilance committee, 
the law and order league. The mob usurps all the 
power of the State, the vigilance committee take the 
power of the prosecuting attorney, court, and officers, 
and the law and order league assumes the duties of the 
prosecuting officers. That each in its time may do 
some good, many will claim ; that the law and order 
league does accomplish good, no one will doubt ; but 
it is doubtful if the good it does is commensurate with 
the evil it will do if it is to be more than a temporary 
organization, for, by assuming to- do what the State 
should do, it impeaches the integrity of the State, and, 
by teaching the people to distrust the Government, 
weakens public faith and individual patriotism. If the 
law is defied by conspirators who are too strong for the 
State, the organization of good men should be to meet 
the specific danger, and should be limited to the exist- 
ence of the necessity that called it into being, which 
will be the recovery by the State of the power to per- 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 215 

form its own functions. If the failure of the law is 
caused, by what a celebrated writer calls " atony " of 
the State, viz., political indifference, inattention, and 
carelessness on the part of the citizens, by which active 
bad men are enabled to control matters, and place their 
tools in executive office, the only remedy is to arouse 
the political conscience and patriotism of the citizens, 
and thereby increase the vitality of the State ; and in 
this case the law and order league is a positive injury, 
because it acts as a sedative, and individual conscience 
leads to a postponement of irksome political duties and 
increases the danger. 

These organizations must have this effect, for the 
elector will say: " If we, to advance the interests of our 
party, elect a weak man, or a man pledged to the vile 
elements, the law and order league will stand behind 
the laws, and the country will not suffer. Another 
business man will say : " I have not time to attend to 
the political caucus, to work for men who will enforce 
the law ; I will give the law and order league fifty 
dollars, and it will look after things." Another injury 
these organizations must do is to teach the public that 
the special law they are organized to enforce cannot be 
made operative by the State, which, if true, proves the 
law defective. They give the prosecuting attorney a 
chance to shirk his duty and to say : " You have an 
organization to enforce this law, and why don't you do 
it ? " The laws dealing with the liquor traffic should 
stand with all other laws, and their enforcement be 
made a political, and, if necessary, a party issue. Tools 
of the liquor interest should be kicked out of power. 
The country has no use for men who work for party 
first and country afterwards ; who say : " If the law is 
enforced it will hurt our party, we will lose the German 
vote." Such men are traitors to humanity, civilization, 
and liberty. I fear the results of any organization 
which will act as an excuse for lazy electors, and quiet 
their political consciences. What this country needs are 
not anaesthetics and narcotics to soothe the conscience 
of electors, but the burning iron of intelligent action, 
and the knife of righteous law freely used upon the 
loathsome ulcers on the body politic, by officers whose 



2l6 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

official tenure depends upon the honest enforcement 
of law, they having been elected by a party based on 
that principle. It is my opinion that if half the money 
and time and effort had been used to induce the 
people to apply the common-sense methods of politi- 
cal treatment for political disease, that have been 
spent in devising false remedies, and studying "how 
not to do it," there would not be an open bar-room in 
this country to-day. The fault is not with the masses, 
but with the leaders, or so-called moral guides of soci- 
ety. When the leaders of Kansas and Iowa and Ohio 
mustered up grit enough to lead the way, they found 
the masses true as steel. Our leaders have become 
stumbling-blocks whose inaction smacks strongly of 
cowardice, inability, or treason. The old worn-out cry: 
" The people are not educated up to the point, " is an 
insult to the intelligence of the American nation. The 
State having failed to destroy the evils of the traffic by 
license, or by giving communities the power to deal 
with it, should now outlaw it, brand it as infamous, and 
the people should put in administrative offices men 
whose honor, conscience, and party fealty all say: 
" You must enforce the law." Cowards may cry : "You 
are going too fast," but every interest of home, human- 
ity, civilization, and country demands immediate action. 
The last time I was at home, my little boy stood by 
me to say with a laugh, " Papa, Fs almost a man." For 
a moment I was as happy as he, in the thought, and 
then this cloud came : " Every inch he grows taller, 
every day he grows older, brings nearer the time when 
he will go out on the streets of a city, that opens more 
schools to make him a devil, than it, does to make him 
a man." I bowed my head and asked God to give me 
courage and muscle and nerve to stand in the front ^of 
the fight with my fellow-workers, and assist in freeing 
Nebraska from this curse before my boy should be in 
danger. " In a hurry? " How many more hearts must 
be broken ? How many more babies be starved ? Flow 
many more women must have the light of love and 
hope taken out of their lives ? How many more fathers, 
and husbands, and sons must be offered up on the altar 
of this devilish license system, and other compromises, 



WHAT, WHY, AND HOW. 2\J 

before this Christian people will stand shoulder to 
shoulder, and for wife and babies, and friends and 
home and country, cry : " Out of the way, cowards ! 
This is a battle to the death, and may God defend the 
right ! " 



X. 

COMPENSATION. 

An Address delivered in Berkeley Street Methodist Church, Toronto 
Canada, Sunday, May 24, 1885.* 

Portia—** Then take thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh ; 
But in the cutting it, if thou dost shed 
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods 
Are by the laws of Venice confiscate 
Unto the State of Venice." 

Gratiano — " O, upright judge ! Mark, Jew — O, learned judge ! " 

Shylock — " Is that the law?" 

Portia — " Thyself s-hall see the act ; 
For as thou urgest justice, be assured 
Thou shalt have justice more than thou desirest." 

— Shakespea re. 

In discussing the rights, duties, and obligations ot 
man, the primary laws of his being must be taken 
into consideration. Man is a social animal. Society is 
necessary for his development. When associated with 
his fellows he becomes the God-man ; isolated, he be- 
comes the brute-man. It is impossible to think of man 
out of society. It is wasting time to talk of man's en- 
tering society, because he was born in society, a part of 
society, and it is impossible for him to remain a man and 
exist outside of social influences. Government is made 
necessary by the fundamental laws of man's being. In 
society there must be an institution of justice, which shall 
determine the individual rights of the various members, 
in order that the weak may be protected against the strong, 
avarice restrained, vice and crime prevented, and man 
elevated. If we could think of man as existing by him- 
self, we could think of him as a comparatively free and 
independent being—that is, free from all social restraint 
and law. Man in a country by himself can violate but 

* The Canadian Parliament had been considering the question of 
indemnity to brewers and distillers. The R. W. G. Lodge met at 
Toronto this week, and Mr. Finch, who had just completed his first 
term as R. W. G. Templar, was invited to speak on 4< Compensation," 
~Er>. 

(218) 



COMPENSATION. 219 

one class of laws : God's laws — God's laws which con- 
trol fiis own being — God's laws written in nature — 
God's laws written in the revealed Word. When we 
think of man following the dictates of his own nature, 
and, as a social being, accepting the protection of soci- 
ety, profiting by the advantages which make him truly 
free, we must always consider him as an individual 
whose rights are limited by those of other individuals 
who have the same rights, duties, and obligations that 
he has himself. The privileges of free schools, churches, 
colleges, and the right to acquire property, to have life 
and property protected, all take with them correspond- 
ing obligations and duties, and give Government the 
right to say that in consideration of these social bene- 
fits, the individual shall so conduct himself and his busi- 
ness, as not to interfere with the rights of others. Gov- 
ernment is an institution of justice, which determines 
obligations and duties, and punishes crime. It is a ne- 
cessity growing out of man's nature and coexistent 
with him. Robbers defy all social law, but have among 
themselves an iron code. Pirates laugh at the author- 
ity of Government, but their own leader is a despot. 
Sailors mutiny and kill their captain, but they must at 
once form a government or they cannot navigate the 
ship. In Western towns of the United States, beyond 
the limits of organized government, men have again 
and again organized a court, and called " Judge Lynch " 
to the bench, to take the place of government. 

Government, being necessary for man's development, 
and his protection, must have powers commensurate 
with its duties. If it is to administer justice, it must 
have power to protect the innocent and punish the 
guilty. It must be the supreme power, for any greater 
force will dominate it. If it is to protect others, it must 
have the power to protect itself. Self-preservation is 
the first law of life. Self-defence is a good defence, in 
the legal sense. Every individual has a right to defend 
himself from assault and injury. This defence must be 
conducted in accordance with the necessities of the 
case. If it is necessary, the one assaulted is justified in 
taking the life of the assailant, to protect his own life. 
This absolute right to life, inherent in every individual 



220 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

until he forfeits it to society, is inherent in the Govern- 
ment until the latter is repudiated by the people.* 

In times of civil war, the Government may draft sol- 
diers from the ranks of its citizens. Whether they 
want to go to battle or not, does not affect the right to 
send them. The Government is the judge of the ne- 
cessities of the case, and if it deems their assistance 
necessary to save itself, it may take them from home, 
from wife and children, from business, dress them in 
uniform, strap the knapsack to their backs, put the 
guns in their hands, and march them to the battle-field, 
to be shot to death to preserve its own life. The right 
to life is absolute, yet the Government may arrest the 
individual who has killed, and, after trial, take the life 
of the offender. I am aware that some may urge — and 
I am of their opinion — that the right of the Govern- 
ment to take human life is governed by the same 
rule that governs the right of an individual to 
defend himself, viz. : the necessities of the case. 
No one can doubt that there was a time in the 
civilization of the world, when government, without 
prisons and reformatories to confine the vicious and 
criminal, was justified in killing men ; but that right is 
limited by the necessities of the case, and I question 
whether any government with its present civilization 
and facilities for imprisonment, has a right to do what 
is in point of fact unnecessary. The right of the Gov- 
ernment to protect its life, and the lives of the peo- 
ple, by taking individual life, is the same right by which 
society, acting through the Government, destroys trade 
to protect its life, and remove obstacles which prevent 
it from fulfilling its mission. Great Britain, on the first 
day of January, 1808, entirely abolished the slave trade. 
In most civilized countries the trade of the gambler 
has been prohibited by Government, and in the United 
States, after years of existence, the lottery trade was 
prohibited by most of the States for the same reason. 
When the trade is not wholly bad, Government regu- 
lates, restrains, and legislates so as to destroy its bad 
tendencies and develop good results. It prevents the 
employment of children under a certain age in factories. 
It compels manufacturers to provide fire escapes for 



COMPENSATION. 221 

their employes. It compels the removal of slaughter- 
houses and soap-factories in cities, and prevents the 
keeping of gunpowder in more than certain quantities 
in populous centres. The power of the United States 
Government in such matters is clearly stated by Chief 
Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, in the leading case of 
Fisher against McGirr : " We have no doubt that it is 
competent for the Legislature to declare the possession of 
certain articles of property, either absolutely or when held 
in particular places or under particular circumstances, to 
be unlawful because they would' be injurious, dangerous, 
or obnoxious, and by due process of law, by proceedings 
in rem to provide both for the abatement of the offence by 
the seizure and confiscation of the property, by the re- 
moval, sale, or destruction of obnoxious articles." In the 
case of the State, Sanford, Relator, vs. the Court of 
Common Pleas, New Jersey, Van Syckies, Justice, said : 
" While alcoholic stimulants are recognized as property 
and entitled to the protection of the law, ozvnership in 
them is subject to such restrictions as are demanded by 
the highest considerations of public expediency. Such 
enactments are regarded as police regulations, established 
for the prevention of crime and pauperism, for the abate- 
ment of nuisances, and the protection of public health and 
safety. They are a just restraint of the injurious use of 
property." 

In England, the Court of the King's Bench has de- 
cided : " There are ma?iy cases in which individuals sus- 
tain an injury for which the law gives no action : for 
instance, pulling down houses or raising bulwarks for the 
preservation and defence of the kingdo7n against the kings 
enemies. The civil lazv writers say that the individuals 
who suffer have the right to report to the public for satis- 
faction, but no one ever thought that the common law gave 
an action against the individual who pulled down the 
house. This is one of the cases to which the maxim 
applies, i Salus populi suprema est lex/ " 

In the United States, upon the adoption of the Four- 
teenth Amendment to the National Constitution, it 
was claimed the rule was changed. The amendment is 
as follows : 

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject 



222 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law 
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the 
United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, 
or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within 
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." 

The United States Supreme Court construed this 
amendment in December, 1872, in the Louisiana 
Slaughter-house cases. 

By act of the Legislature a corporation was created 
and given the exclusive privilege for twenty-five years, 
to have and maintain slaughter-houses, landings for cat- 
tle, and yards for inclosing cattle intended for slaughter, 
within a territorial area of 1,154 square miles around 
and about and including the city of New Orleans, and 
prohibited all other persons from building, keeping, or 
having slaughter-houses, landings for cattle and yards 
for cattle intended for sale or slaughter, within those 
limits. 

The effect of this act was thus stated by an able at- 
torney : 

"The only question, then, is this : 'When a State passes a law de- 
priving a thousand people, who have acquired valuable property, and 
who, through its instrumentality, are engaged in an honest and neces- 
sary business, which they understand, of their right to use such, their 
own property, and to labor in such, their honest and necessary busi- 
ness, and gives a monopoly, embracing the whole subject, including 
the right to labor in such business, to seventeen other persons— 
whether the State has abridged any of the privileges or immunities of 
these one thousand persons ? ' " 

The Supreme Court held " that this grant of exclu- 
sive right or privilege .... was a police regulation 
for the health and comfort of the people, within the 
power of the State Legislatures, unaffected by the 
Constitution of the United States previous to the 
adoption of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Articles of 
Amendment. Such power is not forbidden by the 
Thirteenth Article and by the first section of the Four- 
teenth Article. ,, 

The power of the Government to prohibit without 
compensation was not removed by the amendments, 
but remains in the Government to be used as circum- 
stances require. 



COMPENSATION. 223 

In Canada, to-day, the power of Government is being 
exerted to destroy a great trade. The men engaged in 
it make no defence of the trade as a social institu- 
tion, but demand, in consideration of its destruction, 
that the Government shall compensate them for the 
property, which will be injured by prohibiting its crim- 
inal use. By prohibition of the alcoholic traffic the 
Government does not destroy property, or take private 
property for public use. It simply prevents private 
parties from using their property to the injury of the 
public. In discussing the equity of this claim of the 
liquor-dealers, it will be better for us to examine when 
and how Government grants compensation, and whether 
this demand of the liquor-dealers is sustained by pre- 
cedent or equity. 

It is certain: 1st. Such compensation can only be 
secured by special enactment concurrent with the pro- 
hibitory law. In Canada, as well as in Great Britain, 
Parliament is supreme. The right of the subject to 
compensation is entirely statutory. 

" We have no law or general principle by which 
compensation is to be given ; in such cases it is en- 
tirely statutory \" (Sir Montague E. Smith, in Drum- 
mond vs. City of Montreal, House of Lords' case in 
1876.) From this it follows that if the Parliament of 
Canada should at any time elect to suppress any busi- 
ness, or expropriate private property for public use or 
public good, without providing for compensation to 
the owners of such business or property, the latter 
would seek in vain to obtain damages from the courts, 
and the books would fail to produce a single case where 
a precedent for such an action exists. The Governor 
and Company of the British Cast Plate Manu. vs. 
Meredith et al., 14 Term Reports, 794, decided in the 
Court of the King's Bench in 1792, and Dungey vs. The 
Mayor and Cor. of London, 3 Law Journal (C. P.), 298, 
are both in support of this principle. In the first-named 
the defendants, who were Commissioners under a 
Paving Act, in the exercise of the powers given to them 
by the Act, raised a pavement two feet and a half in 
front of the plaintiff company's premises, causing them 
substantial injury. In deciding this case, Lord Kenyon, 



224 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Chief Justice, said : "If this action could be maintained, 
every Turnpike Act, Paving Act, and Navigation Act, 
would give rise to an infinity of actions. If the legisla- 
ture think it necessary, as they do in many cases, they 
enable the commissioners to award satisfaction to the 
individuals who happen to suffer ; but if there be no such 
power, the parties are zvithout remedy, provided the com- 
missioners do not exceed their jurisdiction 

Some individuals suffer a?t i?iconvenience under all these 
Acts of Parliament, but the interests of individuals must 
give way to the accommodation of the public." 

The second case cited is a much later one, in which 
the principles, as laid down in the older case, are 
reviewed and confirmed. 

From these decisions it may also be stated : 2d. 
Parliament has a right to refuse such compensation. 
In this respect there is a wide difference between Eng- 
lish and American legislation. The Constitution of the 
United States expressly provides that private property 
shall not be taken for public use without just compen- 
sation. Most of the States have a similar provision. 
(Amd.Xom. U.S., Art. V., March, 1789.) A point is 
sought to be made in Canada by quoting Chancellor 
Kent, who says : " The settled and fundamental doctrine 
is that Government has no right to take private property 
for public purposes without giving a just compensation; 
and it seems to be necessarily implied that the indemnity 
should, in cases which will admit of it, be previously and 
equitably ascertained and be ready concurrently in point 
of time with the actual exercise of the right of eminent 
domain." (Kent's Com., Vol. II., p. 409, note f.) 

It will be observed that Judge Kent speaks of 
taking property for public use. He does not speak of 
preventing the injurious use of property. The Ameri- 
can law given by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, is : " The trade in alcoholic drinks being lawful, 
and the capital employed in it being duly protected by law, 
the legislature then steps in, and, by an enactment based 
on general reasons of public utility, annihilates the traffic, 
destroys altogether the employment, and reduces to a 
nominal value the property on hand ; even the keeping of 
that for the purpose of sale becomes a criminal offence. 



COMPENSATION* 225 

and without any chaitge whatever in his own conduct or 
employment, the merchant of yesterday becomes the crim- 
inal of to-day, and the very building in which he lives 
and conducts the business which to that moment was 
lawful, becomes the subject of legal proceedings if the 
statute so declare, and liable to be proceeded against for 
forfeiture, A statute which can do this -must be justi- 
fied upon the highest reasons of public benefit; but whether 
satisfactory or not, the reasons address themselves ex- 
clusively to the legislative wisdom." 

British governments have never recognized the 
principle stated by Judge Kent in its entirety, but have 
invariably exercised their discretion in the matter of 
granting compensation, and in the few cases where the 
courts have been asked to interfere, the judges have un- 
hesitatingly refused to dictate to Parliament, but have 
confined themselves to interpreting the law as it stood. 
• 3d. Should Parliament neglect to provide for com- 
pensation, no injustice will be done, and the precedents 
in similar cases will be followed. There being no com- 
mon law or constitutional right for the liquor-dealers to 
grasp, they must come and present their claims for 
compensation before the Prohibitory Act is passed, as 
by standing by and failing to claim, they will waive any 
right they may now possess. While the power of Par- 
liament is supreme, it has always been a leading princi- 
ple of its enactments, that they should be to a large 
extent guided and controlled by ancient precedent, and 
many sensible and excellent principles which from their 
great value in directing the exercise of legislative power 
have acquired almost the force of law. The principle 
laid down by Kent is among these, and English Parlia- 
ments have always been careful to do full justice to the 
owners of property whenever they have been entitled 
to such. English and Canadian statutes abound in 
provisions for compensation, based upon this very prin- 
ciple. It is not proposed, however, to appropriate these 
breweries, distilleries, warehouses, etc., for public pur- 
poses, but to entirely destroy their right to exist for 
the purpose of furnishing alcoholic drinks as beverages. 
The penalty for violation, in all probability, will be for- 
feiture and imprisonment. Parliament has frequently 

*5 



226 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

seen fit tc enact that certain trades cease to be prose- 
cuted in the country (for the public good), and in no 
case have the courts held that Parliament was bound 
to provide for compensation for those who suffered 
pecuniary loss. In a few instances provision was made 
at the time the law was passed, and the reports of Eng- 
lish cases do not cite a single instance where a private 
individual sought to recover against the Crown. There 
are numerous cases where courts have interpreted the 
statute and have decided what Parliament intended. 
In Rex vs. Watts, 2 Carringto-n and Payne, 466, the 
Court of the King's Bench decided with reference to 
a business, previously -declared a nuisance in a certain 
locality by statute. It was held that a person violat- 
ing the Act, was not entitled to damages or compensa- 
tion at that time, even if the Act itself provided for 
compensation. 

Abbott, Chief Justice, said : "If the defendant's slaugh- 
tering-house was so conducted as to be a public nuisance at 
common law, the parish might at any time have caused it 
to be removed, and I am clearly of opinio?! that in this 
case it was so conducted as to be a nuisance at common 
law, and that the defendant would not have been, and is 
not, entitled to any compensation." It will be observed 
that this case, like all the others reported respecting 
nuisances, turned entirely upon the statute and the or-* 
dinary common law definition of a nuisance. In dealing 
with this question, therefore, no advantage can be ob- 
tained from consulting the decisions of courts. First 
principles, and an examination of what Parliaments have 
formerly done, must be the sole factors in presenting the 
claims of the liquor business. In the latter connection, 
reference is made to the abolition of slavery by the 
English Parliament in 1833, and the advocates of com- 
pensation for liquor-dealers seek to strengthen their 
position by showing what was then done. Let us go 
back, however, a few years and a parallel will be found 
to the question of prohibition as it stands to-day. In 
1806 an Act was passed prohibiting all British subjects 
from engaging in the slave trade, either for the supply 
of conquered colonies or of foreign possessions. A 
large amount of capital was at that time invested in this 



COMPENSATION. 227 

very profitable trade, but the question of compensation 
was never mooted, and when, on the first of January, 
1808, the trade was entirely abolished, not a shilling 
was paid the traders for their loss, but Parliament in 
181 1 followed the former laws with an Act making par- 
ticipation in the slave trade a felony, punishable with 
fourteen years' transportation, and in 1824 it was de- 
clared to be piracy, punishable with death. Thus was 
the business of dealing in slaves dealt with, and the 
above was the kind of compensation the dealers re- 
ceived. If the liquor-dealers insist on the Canadian 
Parliament dealing with them as the British Govern- 
ment did with the slave-traders, prohibitionists ought 
not to object. When, however, in 1833, ^ was decided 
to emancipate the slaves in the West Indies, a new ele- 
ment had to be considered, namely, the effect of such 
an action on the business of the Colonies and Britain. 

" If by his manufacture a man creates an appreciable 
nuisance to those around him, his act becomes wrongful!' 
(Mayne on Damages, page 8.) If Parliament then de- 
cides that the manufacture of liquor must be suppressed 
because it is an injury to the public, every principle of 
common law, and every precedent to be found in the re- 
ports of parliamentary proceedings, support the conten- 
tion that the liquor-dealers have no just rights to com- 
pensation. For it is settled: 1st. Government never 
grants compensation for diminution of the value of 
property by the prohibition of its injurious or wrong- 
ful use. 2d. Where Government grants compensation 
for property taken or destroyed, it never takes into con- 
sideration indirect damages. Though the British Gov- 
ernment granted financial aid to the owners of liberated 
slaves, it wholly ignored all indirect damage done by 
emancipation. But it maybe advantageous for us to 
examine fully into the equity of this particular case. It 
must be borne in mind that the retail trade exists by 
license granted annually, and the wholesale trade by 
sufferance. Under the Canada license system, the com- 
mon law right to sell liquor is destroyed by police regu- 
lation. In other words, no individual can compel the 
granting of a license. A man in Toronto may build a 
fine hotel, comply with every requirement of the law, 



228 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

and still the commissioners have the right to refuse 
him license, and no action will lie to compel them to 
issue a license. If they deem it wise, they may issue a 
license, but it is for them to say who shall have a li- 
cense and how many licenses shall be granted. The 
license granted is for one year. At the end of the year 
there is no guarantee, either expressed or implied, that 
it will be renewed. A man leases a farm for a year, and 
during the year buys farm machinery and stock. At 
the end of the year the owner of the farm refuses to re- 
new the lease. The property purchased by the lessor 
being useless to him, will depreciate in the forced sale, 
but the owner of the farm would not be responsible 
for the depreciation in value, because the man who 
leased the farm, knew his lease was for but a single 
year. The lease or license given retail liquor-dealers 
to set up their drunkard-factories in a city, is an annual 
lease, and, when their lease has expired, for them to 
claim compensation for the tools with which they 
have been injuring the public, simply because they 
have been prohibited from continuing to use the tools 
for that specific purpose, is, to express it mildly, a 
preposterous claim. In examining the claim of the 
drunkard-makers, the rule of the courts must be the 
rule of the people, viz. : " A man who comes into court 
demanding equity must come with clean hands and a 
pure heart before God." The liquor business does not 
and cannot come with clean hands. The suppression 
of the liquor trade is caused by its own crimes. 
When the liquor trade was introduced into this 
country, it was admitted on the same social, civil, and 
religious basis as all trades. There was a time in 
the history of Canada when it was as religious to sell 
rum as it was to sell molasses, and I presume a major- 
ity of the people, if they could only have had one of 
the two, would have taken the rum. I think the fact 
is that they usually took them together. As late as 
1813, a majority of all the distillers of America were 
members of the Christian Church. As late as 1820, a 
majority of all the liquor-sellers were members of the 
churches. As late as 1835, the Rev. George B. Cheever 
was arrested in the city of Salem, Mass., for libel, and 



COMPENSATION. 22Q 

sent to jail for daring to maintain, in that celebrated 
cartoon, " Deacon Giles' Distillery/' that the business of 
selling rum and peddling Bibles, was not consistent 
with the professed Christian life of a deacon of the 
Church. As four boys, born in the same family, are 
given the same opportunities to become honorable 
men, loved and respected by their fellows, so the dry- 
goods trade, grocery trade, liquor trade, and the Church 
were, at the organization of society on this continent, 
given the same chances to make honorable records, and 
endear themselves to the people. The road before the 
liquor trade was broad, and the sky over its head bright. 
It was given every chance to endear itself to this people 
and make an honest record. Everybody was its friend, 
nobody was its enemy. Liquor was used at the raising, 
at the log-rolling, at the corn-husking, at the wedding, 
in social life — everywhere and under all circum- 
stances. With this start, what has the liquor trade 
done for itself and for the society that nursed and 
protected it? One day while I was sitting in front 
of the Commercial Hotel in the city of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, talking with a prominent liquor-dealer, a 
couple of little girls ran laughing by us. Touching me 
on the shoulder, he said : " Those are my girls." I said, 
" Pretty girls." He said, " I think they are." After 
a moment's silence, he said : " I am going to go out 
of this liquor business pretty soon," and when I told 
him I was glad to hear it, and asked him for his 
reasons, he answered : " Not because I think it all bad, 
as you do, but because my girls will soon be women, 
and when my girls grow up, I want them to go in good 
society, and a whiskey-seller's girls cannot go in good 
society in this city." He simply told the truth. The 
social rule which makes liquor-sellers and their families 
social outcasts, is the rule generally observed through- 
out the United States. Why is it? It w r as not always 
so. Do you believe that if the liquor business had 
made good men and happy women and children it 
would meet with any greater opposition to-day than 
the dry-goods trade or the grocer's trade? Do you 
believe that if the liquor-seller had made his customer 
a better man, a kinder husband, a more loving father, 



230 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

society would treat him any differently than it treats 
the clergyman or merchant ? The Christian Church 
has been tried on this continent by its social, its civil, 
and its business record. After all these years of trial, 
It never had a stronger hold on the hearts of intelli- 
gent people than it has to-day. The dry-goods trade 
has been tried, and after a record of a hundred years, 
it is as respectable to sell dry-goods now as then. The 
grocers' trade has been tried, and has lost neither its 
character nor standing. The liquor trade has been 
tried, and is it as respectable to sell liquor now as it 
was a hundred years ago ? Is it as respectable to drink 
it as it was a hundred years ago ? Is it as respectable 
to make liquor? If not, why not? What is the matter 
with this villainous traffic ? You know that from the 
day society welcomed it to the marts of commerce, it 
has deliberately and maliciously buried its arms to the 
elbows in the blood of the best interests of a free people. 
These crimes have not been committed in moments 
of passion, in moments of excitement, but after coolly 
and deliberately figuring the profits to come from such 
ruin, and paying for the privilege of carrying forward 
the work. Its record in Canada is a record of crime, 
vice, sorrow, misery, wretchedness, agony. On this 
record it has been tried, and the prohibitory law is 
simply a sentence for crime committed. 

Crimes forfeit rights. The right to life and liberty 
is the primary and greatest right ; but let a man mur- 
der another and he is arrested and brought into court 
for trial. Suppose his solicitor would object : " This 
man is a free-born British subject, entitled to life and 
liberty, and I demand his release. ,, His Lordship 
would probably answer : " This man is now charged 
with crime and has two rights : the right to a fair trial 
in accordance with the forms of law ; if convicted, the 
right to be executed in accordance with the method 
prescribed by law." So to-day the liquor business is 
indicted for social crimes, and is entitled to a fair trial, 
and punishment commensurate with its crimes. 

I come to your city, buy a lot, and this summer erect 
a slaughter-house. During the cold weather of next win- 
ter I use it as a slaughter-house ; but, when the warm air 



COMPENSATION. 23 1 

comes, breathing up from the southland, and the place be- 
comes a nuisance, the city officers would call on me and 
demand that the building be disinfected, and that I cease 
using it for such purposes. If I should protest, " I own 
this building/' they would answer, " We are aware of 
the fact. That is the reason we come to you. If 
another man had owned the property we would have 
called on him." I answer : " I have the deed of this 
property. My fortune is invested here. I make my 
living by slaughtering cattle. If you drive me out of 
here you will ruin me. I pay my taxes and behave my- 
self. Why are you here disturbing me ? " The answer 
would be : " We should not have thought of disturbing 
you if the smell of your building had not disturbed 
people and injured the public health of this city. You, 
by your own act, by your own business, have made 
your place a public nuisance ; now disinfect this build- 
ing and stop your work." Who would be to blame for 
that result ? Not society who acted, but I who com- 
pelled society to act. Bear in mind that it is the thief 
who. compels society to arrest him, that it is the mur- 
derer who compels society to punish him ; that it is the 
liquor trade that has compelled society to proceed 
against it. Society assails the liquor trade to protect 
itself, and in dealing with the liquor trade has ever been 
governed by the law of self-defence, viz., that the 
means used must be in proportion to the danger to be 
overcome. It has tried mild measures in dealing with 
these criminals, before proceeding to extreme measures. 
Low license, high license, and civil damages have all 
been tried ; but despite these warnings, the traffic has 
continued the same malicious, hardened criminal. All 
other remedies have failed. No man doubts that if low 
license had removed the vicious character of this trade, 
high license would never have been adopted. If high 
license and local option had accomplished the results 
desired by society, the death sentence, in the form of 
prohibition, would never have been passed. Notwith- 
standing this self-evident fact, it now seeks to use the 
forbearance of Government, as the basis for its present 
demand for compensation. Its friends urge that the 
Government, by license, gave it a right to exist. There 



232 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

is not a lawyer in Canada who does not know that the 
liquor license law is a police regulation, passed to 
regulate and restrain the traffic, not for the purpose of 
raising revenue from it. The liquor traffic, before the 
days of license, existed by common law right. Repeal 
the license law, and the right to sell liquor everywhere 
would be universal. License does not create rights ; 
it simply aims to curtail and limit pre-existing rights to 
prevent public injury. The license fee is a police fine 
assessed in advance for the purpose of regulation, not for 
revenue. License is partial prohibition. By it Govern- 
ment has simply kept in view the law of self-defence : 
" The force and means used must be proportionate to 
the danger." This attempted regulation never created 
a right, nor indicated approval of a system, any more 
than for a man to seize an assailant and try to 
hold him, would indicate approval of the assault, be- 
cause he did not kill the assailant. The Government 
has shown its desire to do justice, by trying all other 
methods before killing the traffic, and, by chaining and 
fining the criminal, has not become its partner or re- 
sponsible for its crimes. The common law right of the 
traffic to exist was disturbed because of its criminal 
use. The traffic refused to heed the warning, and has 
compelled Government to destroy the right. Had it 
contained an element of decency it might have lived.* 
But it has defied every law, and gone on with its work 
of debauching and degrading public morals. It stands 
in the court of the people, surrounded by the evidence 
of its infamous crimes, and asks for justice, and justice 
it shall have. Its demand is that the people who have 
been compelled to prohibit it shall pay its representa- 
tives for the tools with which they are carrying on the 
infamous work, to stop which the Government prohibits 
the traffic. My wife has a property interest in my 
brain, nerve, and muscle. If I should be killed on the 
railroad she could collect from the company damages 
for injury done her rights ; but if I should commit 
murder, and society should hang me, she -could not 
collect damage from the Government, because the 
hanging was caused by my wrongful act. If the Gov- 
ernment had taken the property of the liquor trade 



COMPENSATION. 233 

for public purposes, or prevented its use in a certain 
way because it desired to promote the public good ; if 
this had been done when the liquor interest was bene- 
fiting society, then compensation would have been just ; 
but the Government does not prohibit liquor because 
it prefers that method of dealing with it ; it prohibits 
the liquor traffic, because it is compelled to do so to 
promote public good. Prohibition is the result of the 
wrongful act of the liquor trade, and the liquor interest 
cannot demand compensation for something compelled 
by its own wrongful act. This principle has been rec- 
ognized in all the restrictive measures adopted with 
a view to reform this criminal traffic. When your 
Government limited the number of liquor-dealers by 
license, those driven out of the traffic had no thought 
of demanding compensation for damages done to their 
property. If it was right for the Government to 
destroy one-half of the liquor-shops of the country 
without compensating the dealers, and the brewers 
and distillers who were injured by the reduction of 
the trade, who will dare urge that it shall compensate 
when the remainder of the trade are treated in the 
same way, for continuing the very crimes for which the 
others were suppressed ? No man questions the right 
of the Government to regulate the number of liquor 
places in each city and town in the province, and no 
one would dare claim compensation, if the Government 
should deem such regulation necessary. The restrict- 
ive statute would injure the entire liquor trade ; but 
the liquor men never remonstrate until the last one is 
suppressed, and when the last one is suppressed for 
exactly the same reasons that led to the suppression of 
the others, where is the justice of the claim for compen- 
sation ? I know it is urged that Great Britain compen- 
sated slave-owners when she emancipated slaves, but the 
distinction should be borne in mind, that in one case she 
destroyed property, in the other case Canada simply 
proposes to prohibit wrongful uses of property. The 
slave-owner had a property interest which he might 
sell. No liquor-dealer can sell his license. License is 
not property. If the slave-owners had used their slaves 
for the purpose of robbing and plundering, and the 



234 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

Government had prohibited such uses of property, 
does any one suppose that compensation would have 
been granted ? Suppose the only way in which the 
slaves could have been made profitable to the owners 
had been by using them as pirates and robbers, and 
the Government had absolutely prohibited such use, 
would the demand for compensation have been sus- 
tained because the slave would have been diminished 
in value ? To claim that the Government should com- 
pensate criminals because it had suffered them to com- 
mit crime, would be to claim that Great Britain would 
pay for the ships and property of every negro-stealer, 
v/ho was for long years suffered to carry on his terrible 
trade, under the protection of a free flag. The same 
logic w r ould compel France to pay for the furniture in 
every house of prostitution, when, restrictive measures 
having failed, prostitution is prohibited. When a Gov- 
ernment is compelled by the social results of lotteries 
to prohibit lotteries, the same logic would compel the 
Government to purchase the wheels, dice, and boxes. 
To examine more fully into the merits of this case, let 
us see what it is these men have been prohibited from 
doing, to what uses the property for which they demand 
compensation has been put. I was standing at the 
corner of Reade Street and Broadway, in the city of 
New York, last October, chatting with a friend. On 
my way from the elevated railway station I had pur- 
chased an apple, which I was eating. Something at- 
tracted my attention, and looking down at my side I 
saw a boy, a genuine street arab. His coat had evi- 
dently been made for a full-grown man, and unless his 
feet had grown rapidly, his boots were never made for 
him. As I looked down at him he looked up to me 
and said, " Say, Mister, would you mind giving me the 
core of that apple when you get it eat ? " At first I 
was tempted to laugh, but as I looked at the pinched 
face and ragged clothes the temptation disappeared, 
and I asked my friend and the boy to come with me to 
the apple-stand, where I told the proprietor to give the 
boy all the apples he could carry off in his pockets. 
The boy, half doubtingly, looked up to me and said : 
" You are not a-fooling, are you, Mister ? " When I 



COMPENSATION. 235 

assured him I was not fooling, it would have done you 
good to have seen how many pockets that boy had. 
He seemed to be a sort of universal pocket. The holes 
in the knees of his pants certainly served him one good 
turn, for I saw him put several apples through the holes, 
between the lining and the outside, using the bottom 
of the trouser leg as the bottom of the pocket. As he 
went away with an apple in each hand my friend said 
to me : " I am going to pay for those apples, because I 
have enjoyed them more than any I have eaten in five 
years." An after-investigation showed that the father 
of the boy was a drunkard. 

One night last February, returning from Cambridge, 
Mass., to the city of Boston, accompanied by my friend 
Mr. Mitchell, we left the street-car at the corner of 
Temple Place and Washington Street. A little boy 
ran up to us, holding in his baby hands a paper, saying, 
" Please buy the last paper." He was not as tall as the 
five-year-old in my own home. Mr. Mitchell said, with 
a tremble in his voice, " He is not as big as my baby," 
meaning his youngest boy. In the bitter cold of a win- 
ter's night the little fellow stood pleading for us to " buy 
the last paper." It was the same story — drunken parents. 

If I have any one affection greater than others it is 
love for babies. Not the big babies who whine, " The 
liquor traffic ought to be stopped, but we can't stop 
it." I have neither respect nor love for them. Little 
babies are the ones I love. There is something in the 
honest eyes and dimpled form of a baby, that has 
always had a strong fascination for me. A year ago, 
in Boston, I saw a baby in a wretched tenement- 
house on North Street. It was not such a baby as I 
should see in some of your homes — with laughing 
eyes, cheeks sinking into dimples as he laughed, while 
with little hands he held his big toe and tried to get it 
into his mouth. It was a baby with hands like bird's 
claws, face, pinched and purple, that lay moaning and 
restless in its sleep. I asked the gentleman accom- 
panying me what was the matter with the baby. He 
answered, " Starving. If you doubt it, look at the 
mother." It was true. Baby was dying because 
mother was dying. He assisted her. He was a city 



236 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

missionary. As we left the place, I said: " Madam, 
where is your husband ? " She replied, " In the city 
prison, serving out a sentence for being drunk and dis- 
orderly. ,, I am aware that the liquor-dealers will claim 
that the drunkard is as responsible as the seller, but I 
stand here to maintain, that it is the duty of Govern- 
ment to protect the wife and baby, from the crimes both 
of the liquor-sellers and the drunkard. If there is any- 
thing which should make the hot blood rush in surging 
torrents through the veins of any man, it is the sight of 
a woman with a baby in her arms, injured, maltreated, 
and starved by the accursed liquor traffic. 

If the argument that the drinker is alone responsible 
for the results of the liquor traffic is good, it would jus- 
tify every gambler, courtesan, and lottery^dealer, for the 
customers of each of these death-traps patronize them 
of their own free will. 

No one will doubt that it is the duty of a State to 
protect its women and children. If any one will injure 
a baby, it is the duty of the Government to protect it, 
even if it is necessary to put bayonets around its cra- 
dle-bed for that purpose. Canada is at last moving for- 
ward to give this protection. 

The men who have grown rich by what accomplishes 
the ruin of women and the degradation of children, de- 
mand, if they are no longer to be allowed to carry for- 
ward this crime against humanity and civilization, that 
they shall be compensated for the tools with which the 
crime has been committed, because they cannot make 
as much money by using them in an honorable busi- 
ness as they have made by using them in ruining the 
homes of this Dominion. 

Justice! Yes, give them justice. Surely every man 
must be anxious to give the liquor trade justice. The 
men in the business are men of intelligence and good 
judgment. They knew the results of the trade before 
they entered it. No one compelled them to enter. Of 
their own free will they took up the fearful work, sim- 
ply to make money out of the wretchedness and misery 
of others. They are responsible as social units for their 
social acts. They would not be in the business if it 
was not for the fact that it is the most profitable of 



COMPENSATION. 237 

trades. When one knows the actuating motives of the 
drunkard-makers, and then looks at the destitute homes 
and ruined families of their victims, the only conclusion 
can be is that, to do justice, would be to repeat the Shy- 
lock verdict, " Confiscation of property and death." 
But the wronged ones in this case are more merciful 
even than in that case, for they only ask that the guilty 
shall be stopped from continuing their crimes, and are 
willing to leave with them all their ill-gotten gains. 
The liquor men ought to be happy to be let off so 
easily. The people only ask a verdict on the record 
that this accursed trade has made for itself. The ru- 
ined homes, the degraded men, the broken-hearted 
wives and beggared children, made by the liquor- 
dealers in their attempt to amass wealth, are witnesses 
in the case. The results of the traffic as shown by the 
police court, the almshouse, the penitentiary, and the 
scaffold, must all be considered in making up a ver- 
dict. Try it as you try a man, as you try a woman, 
as you try a boy, as you try a girl. If you find that 
the men representing the traffic stand in the court of 
the people with clean hands and pure hearts before 
God, and that their property has been taken for no 
wrong of their own, pay them every cent of the 
amount to which it has been damaged ; but if you 
find that the traffic was admitted to the country as a 
friend, given every opportunity to be decent, and 
that now, like an adder warmed to life in the bosom of 
its benefactor, would sting to death the life that 
warmed it into existence ; if you find it has ruined 
public morals, degraded public virtue, lowered public 
intelligence ; if you find that its representatives have 
sold liquor to minors, to drunkards, and to Indians ; if 
you find that in their efforts they have not heeded the 
prayers of the wife, of the mother, of the children ; if 
you find that they have defied all restriction, and when 
warned by gentle measures, continued their accursed 
work, until it has become necessary for the Government 
to suppress their business for the public good, then the 
demand of the liquor-sellers should be treated with the 
loathing and contempt which such a crime and villainy 
excites in the breasts of honest men ! 



XL 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT 
PROVED BY ITS SUCCESS. 

An Address delivered at Decatur, Illinois, March 30, 1882. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The liquor traffic in this 
country is based upon ignorance and superstition. 
The acme of liquor-drinking civilization is debauchery, 
vice, and crime. The hope of the temperance workers 
must be the moral, social, and intellectual elevation 
of the race. The two armies now arrayed in this 
country, are, — on the one hand, all that is debauched 
and vile ; and on the other, the highest hopes of the 
world. A battle-field such as this must be interesting 
to every lover of his race, to every friend of humanity, 
and to every one who believes in a future life, and in a 
personal God. Ay, and it must be interesting to 
those who only aspire to see, here in this life, the 
intellectual and physical development of the race, the 
curbing of animal passions, and the restraining of 
vicious ignorance. 

Members of temperance organizations and societies 
recently formed, into whose minds the light has come 
in these latter days, in the fresh enthusiasm of souls 
just brought from semi-darkness into the light, ex- 
claim : u The principles underlying the reform are self- 
evident. The criminal results of the traffic are not 
denied. It stands a criminal without a defender. Why 
is it not overthrown ? " To some, this impatience, and 
the loss of faith in humanity which always results 
from it, may seem reasonable ; but to me, looking from 
the stand-point of one of the oldest temperance organi- 
zations in this country — the Independent Order of 
Good Templars — which dates its labors from the year 
(238) 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 239 

1852, the reasons why the reform moves so slowly are 
self-evident. 

It is a slow work to lift humanity from a lower to 
a higher plane of civilization ; it is a difficult work to 
disabuse the public mind of delusions long cherished, 
and of ideas which are strengthened by their avarice, 
by their intemperance, and by their strong party 
affiliations. 

The impressions made upon the brain in childhood 
are never effaced. In the language of one of the 
greatest of living scientists, " Scars on the brain can 
be removed only by the destruction of the brain.'' 
Teach a child a lie as a truth, and such instruction will 
influence him, even after manhood's years have con- 
vinced him of its absurdity. Ask the old men in this 
audience at what period in their lives they received 
lasting impressions most readily ; they will answer, 
"The mind retains most clearly the details of events 
which transpired when we were between the ages of 
five and thirty years." 

I visited an old lady in my native State, New York, 
some years ago, who was ninety-two years of age. 
I was sitting and chatting with her, when, interrupt- 
ing me, she said : " I want to tell you something," 
and then she told me of a wedding that had occurred 
fifty-seven years before. She described how the groom 
was dressed, told who were there, gave their names 
readily, and related the details of the affair as minutely 
and accurately as though she had been reading from 
a book. When she had finished her story, I said to 
her, " Mother Stewart, will you tell me what you had 
for dinner yesterday?" Putting her hand up to her 
head, she said : " Law, ain't it strange how we forget ! " 
She could remember accurately, distinctly, things which 
had occurred fifty-seven years before, but what had oc- 
curred only twenty-four hours previously had left no 
impression on the brain. The brain of childhood re- 
ceives impressions and retains them. 

Once, while visiting an insane asylum in the East, I 
asked the superintendent if he would allow me to see 
a certain Methodist minister. I had known the min- 
ister in my home as one of the best and truest of men, 



240 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

who, by overwork, physical and mental, had wrecked 
himself and become a raving maniac. The superin- 
tendent of the asylum said : " You will uot want to see 
him "; but I said, " Yes," and he took me to the ward 
of the asylum known as " Bedlam ward." Unlocking 
the door of one of the cells, we entered. The inmate 
was locked up in the " strait-jacket," to prevent him 
from injuring himself. As we entered the room, the 
most terrible, the most vile, the most vulgar oaths 
which I ever heard in my life, came from his lips. I 
touched the superintendent, and told him I did not 
wish to stay longer. Going down the corridor, I turned 
to the superintendent and said to him : " What can this 
mean ? When I knew that man he was one of the 
grandest Christians — true, noble, and good in every 
respect ; and now, to hear such vile language coming 
from him surprises me." Said the superintendent : 
" He learned to swear when a boy. The impressions 
made on his mind during that period of his life when 
the brain most readily received impressions, now that 
reason is dethroned, become the governing power and 
control the thoughts and speech. In this asylum we 
can almost uniformly tell what have been the habits, 
the customs, and abuses of insane people when they 
were children. The brain at such times receives im- 
pressions readily ; the impressions are permanent ; if 
they have indulged in vile practices, or used terrible 
language, the dethronement of reason and intelligent 
consciousness will give the early impressions and habits 
control of the mind. If people could only realize, as 
we have learned here, that it is the education of the 
children which moulds the character for life, the race 
would be better off." 

Not only are these impressions permanent, but, as 
we grow older — although we may in a measure disabuse 
our minds of belief in them — they are ever present to 
bless or curse us to a very great extent. 

My grandmother believed in ghosts, sincerely, hon- 
estly — she believed in them just as sincerely as she 
trusted in the Bible — and I think she was one of the 
grandest Christians I have ever known. She would 
frequently entertain us children — we were seven in 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 241 

number — by gathering us around her and telling us 
ghost stories. She would tell these stories in a way 
which made every one of us believe them. My grand- 
mother never lied ; knowing her veracity, knowing her 
integrity, knowing her regard for the strict letter of the 
truth, we believed all she said. She knew there were 
ghosts ; she had seen them, heard them, and we be- 
lieved her. I grew to boyhood. I never passed a 
cemetery at night but I gave more attention to that side 
of the road than to the other, and when I had passed 
by the graveyard preferred running to walking. When 
young manhood came, and I went to college, I never 
entered the dissecting-room and turned down the cover 
from a cadaver to commence work, without a feeling 
of horror and fear — that feeling of terrible awe which 
I had felt in my boyhood days while listening to my 
grandmother's stories. It intimidated me, and made 
the hand nervous. I tell you to-night I do not believe 
in ghosts ; and yet, honestly, I scarcely know whether 
I do or not. The teaching of my boyhood says, 
" There are ghosts "; the teaching of my after-years 
says, " The belief is nonsense"; reason and intelligence 
say, " It is absurd and foolish "; but childish impres- 
sions say, " It is true." 

I was crossing a divide on horseback in my own State 
some months ago, late at night. Tired and worn I 
allowed my pony to have his own way. I presume I 
was half asleep. The pony was picking his way along 
the bank of a draw (in this country it would be called 
a ravine), when he stumbled and nearly fell. I do not 
know how long I had been riding in that semi-conscious 
condition when aroused by the jolt. A rapid glance 
showed me that I was in an Indian burying-ground. The 
shape of the mounds told what tribe had buried their 
dead there, and I knew they were hundreds of miles 
away in the Indian Territory. I was well mounted and 
armed — certainly not afraid — yet, as I rode through the 
graveyard and down the slope on the other side, some- 
thing cold started at the region of the heart, and went 
down toward my toes, then up toward my head, and 
my hair became wonderfully strong, and my hat won- 
derfully light. The first look was a look back over my 



242 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

shoulder. I stopped the horse and asked myself the 
question, " Why look back? " and I had to admit I had 
looked back for ghosts. 

So I say to you, I do not believe in ghosts, and I do 
believe in ghosts. The teaching of my boyhood days 
will go with me to my grave ; although I may study, 
although I may work, although I may do everything I 
can to overcome it, I am sure that in moments of weak- 
ness, of suspense, perhaps of fear, the early teachings 
will always come up and govern, to a certain extent, 
the inclinations and the impulses of the heart. 

You older men know this is true of your own expe- 
rience. If, when young, you were taught to plant your 
corn at a certain time of the moon's changes, you will 
still plant it at that time. If you were taught that a 
dog standing with his head toward a house and barking 
at midnight, meant death in the family within a year, 
you will never feel comfortable when hearing the dog 
bark, and seeing him in such a position. If, when a boy, 
you were taught to put an angleworm on the hook, and 
then to spit on the worm to make the fish bite more 
readily, you will spit on the worm yet, though for your 
life you cannot tell whether fish like tobacco-juice or 
pure saliva. 

From these natural laws and tendencies of the brain 
we must draw our conclusions. If we would understand 
the conditions of this reform, and what we have to 
overcome in order to win, we must stop and ask, " What 
theories, what ideas, and what opinions, were enter- 
tained by the fathers, mothers, and teachers of the 
present generation of men and women in this country, 
regarding the sale and use of alcoholic liquors ?" The 
question to settle, when we come to investigate this 
movement, and desire to judge how rapidly we may 
succeed, is : " What teaching, what instruction, and what 
superstitions implanted in the brain of this generation 
have we to overcome ?" 

The liquor business in this country is founded on 
superstition. There is not a thing modern, not a thing 
intellectual, not a thing elevating about it. The drink- 
ing customs of this land were born back in the misty 
past, and every one of them is hoary-headed with 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 243 

superstition and moss-backed with age. They are but 
remnants of legends of the past that have come to us, 
not through the educated minds of the race, but per- 
petuated in other countries, as they have been perpetu- 
ated in this country, in the baseness of the lusts and 
passions of humanity. 

For a moment let us see in part, if we may, what 
some of these impressions have been. You know that 
every one of the drinking customs of this land comes 
down to us from the pagan worship of devil-gods. A 
woman takes a glass of wine in her fingers, raises it to 
her lips — she is imitating the example of the drunken 
courtesans of Greece, as, amid the revels of Bacchus, 
they gave up their honor for place and power. 

A man takes a glass of the nasty, dirty, bitter swill, 
known as beer, gulps it down, and, as he rolls into 
the gutter, debauched, and with his manhood soiled 
and tainted by contact with this heathen relic, he cries 
out, " Great is Gambrinus, the god of beer ! " In this 
city you erect temples to the traditions and institutions 
of Bacchus and Gambrinus, two of the most beastly 
heathen gods, and pay more money to continue their 
worship than you pay for the support of your churches 
and your common schools. 

Enter a saloon with a young man ; watch him a mo- 
ment or two, and study the delusion under which he is 
acting. You know him to be good, kind, and affection- 
ate. What has he in his hand ? It is a glass of liquor. 
It is a bitter cold day, and, as he raises the glass to his 
lips, you step up to him and say, " Hold on, Tom ; why 
are you drinking that liquor ? " With a face as long as 
grandmother's was when she told the ghost stories, he 
tells you he is drinking the liquor " to warm him up." 
You say to him, " Tom, does drinking liquor warm you 
up ? Do you not know the physiologists of this coun- 
try say that is a false idea ? " He says, " I don't know 
anything about physiologists, and I don't want to." 

Six months pass, and August with its severe heat, is 
here ; you see the same man enter the saloon, and as 
you follow him again you see him take up a glass of 
the same kind of liquor. " Tom," you say, " what are 
you drinking that liquor for?" and he tells you with 



244 THE PEOPLE vs. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

the same long face that it is a fearfully warm day, and 
he is drinking it " to cool him off." 

Suppose I were to bring a stove on the platform, fill 
it with fuel, start a fire, let the stove become hot, and 
then say to one of the little boys who are present to- 
night, " Come up here, Willie. " As he comes at my 
suggestion, he puts his fingers to the stove and is 
burned ; he snaps his fingers at me and says, " Oh, you 
thought you were smart, didn't you ? " Again, it is 
summer-time. Now put in the fuel, start the fire ; the 
stove gets hot, and I say, " Willie, come up here and sit 
down on this stove ; it will cool you off." What would 
be the answer of the child ? " If fire burns in the win- 
ter, it will burn in the summer." Any child will readily 
recognize the foolishness of the drinker's position. 
And yet full-grown men, men with gray hairs, men with 
wrinkles on their brows, drink whiskey as fire in the 
winter to warm them, and whiskey as fire in the sum- 
mer to cool them off ! 

Will you laugh at grandmother, who taught me to 
believe in ghosts, if you talk like that, my friends ? 

Again, see a man in a saloon drinking liquor " to 
warm him up." If it warms him it must be fuel and 
food. The heat of the body is generated like the heat 
of the stove, by combustion of fuel taken in at the 
mouth. The drinker, if his theory is correct, is simply 
taking in firewood. With this he loads his physical 
system all day, and at night starts for his home out on 
the prairies of this country. The next morning he is 
found by the roadside, dead. What killed him ? All 
the preceding day he was taking alcoholic firewood to 
warm him up, and if his theory that alcohol generates 
heat is true, he must have burned to death. The coro- 
ner's jury say, " He froze." Nine out of every ten men 
who have perished with cold in this northern land, 
labored under the foolish, idiotic superstition, that alco- 
holic liquor adds heat to the physical system, and drank 
that which reduced their power of endurance, and has- 
tened their death. 

Again, a broad-shouldered man enters a saloon. You 
ask : 

i Charlie, why are you drinking ? " 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 245 

He replies : " I am drinking alcoholic liquor because 
I have a difficult job on hand, and I want to add a little 
to my strength." 

" How does alcoholic liquor give you strength ?" 

" I do not know, but it does." 

" Do you not know that alcoholic liquors act as the 
whip to the tired, exhausted system, simply using up 
the reserve force, enabling you to use up a fund of 
strength you ought not to draw upon ? " 

" But I feel stronger." 

" Yes, and if you sit down on a pin rightly fixed, 
you would feel stronger. It would stimulate, not 
strengthen." 

He persists, and during the day takes liquor to make 
him strong. Late at night you start for your home. 
You hear a grunt in the gutter, and looking down you 
see a man holding on to the earth to keep from falling 
off. He cannot stir hand or foot. You roll him over 
to see who he is, and lo ! he is the man who was drink- 
ing liquor to make him strong. "What ails him?" 
Why, if his logic is right, he is too strong. 

Again, I asked a gentleman recently, why he drank 
beer. He replied, " I drink beer because it is good as 
food." Now this is a common delusion, yet I wish to 
assure you, my friends, that the German drinks his 
beer, the Frenchman drinks his wine, the Irishman 
drinks his ale and gin, and the Yankee all kinds of 
drinks, for the " drunk " there is in them. They all 
drink for the intoxicating principle there is in the 
drinks. 

To this proposition you may demur for an instant. 
Let me prove it. You drink beer for the food or nour- 
ishment it is supposed to contain. Very well. Send 
to the saloon, buy a gallon of beer, take it home, and 
put it in the cellar, place ice around it to keep it cool, 
let it remain there until the next morning, then bring 
it up-stairs to drink. No, you will not use it. Why ? 
" It is dead." Yes, the devil has got out of it, the 
drunkard-making alcohol has run away. It has only 
the food (?) left, while the alcohol and carbonic acid 
gas, neither of them food, neither of them nourishment, 
have partially escaped, 



246 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

An old German in the city in which I reside, once 
said to me, when I made that assertion : " Veil, I tole 
you vat I tinks. I tinks you vas mistaken yourself." 
He said: "I 'drinks beer for food." " Very well," I 
said to him, "you get some beer and let us see whether 
you do or not." He brought me some beer. I took a 
retort, improvised a still and then distilled the alcohol 
from the beer. When I had thus removed the alcohol, 
I took the remainder, cooled it on ice, turned it into a 
tumbler, and gave it to him to drink. He drank about 
half a glass of it, when all he had swallowed and his 
breakfast came back together. From that day to this 
the old man will tell you, " Feench put somedings in 
dot beer vot makes me sick right avay quick," while 
the fact was, I simply took from the beer what would 
have made him drunk. 

One of the greatest chemists the world has ever 
known,* (and, by the way, this chemist was a German,) 
said, after eight years of thorough experiment : " I 
have proved, with mathematical accuracy, that the 
amount of nourishment you may take upon the point 
of a table-knife, inserted into a sack of flour, contains 
absolutely more nourishment for the physical organism 
than the nourishment contained in eight quarts of the 
best Bavarian beer, and if a person is able to drink two 
gallons of beer each day in the year, he would get 
about the same amount of nutrition from the beer in 
twelve months that he would by consuming a five- 
pound loaf of bread, or three pounds of lean meat." 

Another person may say : " I do not drink beer for the 
food there is in it, nor for the alcohol which it con- 
tains, but I drink it for the hops. Hops, you know, 
are healthy." My friend, if you will go to a drug- 
store, buy ten cents' worth of hops, and steep them in 
two gallons of water, you will get more hop tea than 
you can get in five gallons of beer. Can you convince 
any sensible man that you buy five gallons of beer, 

* Baron Justus Von Liebig, born in Darmstadt, 1803, died in 
Munich, 1873. He is best known to English readers by his '■ Familiar 
Letters on Chemistry." Baron Liebig was an enthusiast in regard to 
America, and at one time thought of making his residence in the 
United States, — Ed, 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 247 

and pay the price for it you do, to obtain ten cents' 
worth of hop tea? 

These are some of the delusions which find a lodg- 
ing place in the minds of the people, but they are los- 
ing their hold gradually, as science and intelligence 
break down the fortifications of ignorance and supersti- 
tion. You older men can tell these boys in the audi- 
ence to-night, that when you were boys, liquor was the 
first thing ever drank by children, and it was the last 
thing used when people died. It was present on all oc- 
casions. The theory was that it was universally bene- 
ficial and universally necessary. 

Some may object, and some do object, on the ground 
that humanity is not advancing, that temperance work 
acts and reacts, and that these superstitions are not 
fading away. To set at rest forever these croaking 
moralists (who, having chronic dyspepsia, think it is re- 
ligion, and seeing the whole world from the observatory 
of their diseased stomachs, proclaim it is going to the 
bad), it may be best for us to contrast the past with the 
present. 

The idea that universal benefit was derived from the 
sale and the use of alcoholic liquor was held in common 
fifty or sixty years ago by nearly the whole people of 
this country. It was supposed to be necessary when 
persons were sick and when they v/ere well ; when peo- 
ple were sad and when they were happy. It was sup- 
posed to be necessary when persons were cold and when 
they were hot ; when they were wet and when they 
were dry. It was universally considered a panacea and 
cure-all for every ailment to which human flesh was 
heir. To doubt its being "a good thing of God " was 
to be called a fanatic, a zealot, and a fool. 

The men who controlled the business of this country, 
who employed laborers on contracts and in manufac- 
tories, thought it absolutely necessary that workmen 
should use alcoholic stimulants to enable them to stand 
the physical strain and do a good day's work. Farmers 
held the same belief. There could not be a logging, a 
raising, or a threshing-bee without the jug. 

Said an old lady to me, " Nobody ever tells about the 
cjuiltings, but when we had our quiltings in the after- 



248 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

noon, we always set the milk punch up for our hus- 
bands when they came in the evening." 

Take, for example, the digging of the Erie Canal 
across the State of New York. When that canal was 
dug, a boy, known by the cognomen or title of " Grog- 
boy/' was employed on every sub-section. On the 
Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal he was known as " Jigger- 
boy." What was his business? To take liquor, bought 
by the contractors, and carry it out to the laborers. 
The idea was held that all men required liquor, and 
that no man could do a good day's work without stimu- 
lants. This idea w r as so thoroughly impressed upon all, 
that they not only hired men who drank, but they 
bought the liquor and hired a boy to carry it to them. 

Fifty years have passed, and what do we see now? 
The other day I was writing to Samuel D. Hastings, 
of Madison, Wis. — one of the grandest, best, and truest 
of men I have ever known. He is intimately acquainted 
with the affairs of his State, and I asked him to inform 
me what rules were made by the railroads of Wisconsin 
in regard to the use of liquor by their employes. 
March 18th I received the letter I now hold in my 
hand, from which I read the following : 



"Among the questions proposed to the railroad companies by our 
railroad commissioner are the following, viz. : 

" ' Has your company any rule governing your conductors, engU 
neers, and trainmen concerning the use of intoxicating liquors ? If 
so, what is it, and is it enforced ? ' 

" [Answers from the report of 1877.J 

"Answers are given as follows, to wit. : 

" Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Road — ' It is a rule of this 
road not to employ or retain in service men who make an immoderate 
use of intoxicating liquors, and this rule is enforced.' 

" Chicago and Northwestern Road — 'The rules of this Company 
absolutely prohibit the use of intoxicating liquors by conductors, en- 
gineers, and trainmen, and they are strictly enforced.' 

"Chippewa Falls and Western Road — * Perfect sobriety is re- 
quired, and no liquors on the property/ 

*' Green Bay and Minnesota Road — ' Employes not allowed to use 
intoxicating liquors.' 

" Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Road — ' The use of intoxicat- 
ing drinks on or about the premises of the company is strictly prohibit- 
ed, and any employe appearing on duty in a state of intoxication 
is forthwith dismissed : those who totally abstain will receive the 
preference in promotion and employment. These rules are strictly 
enforced,' 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 249 

" Wisconsin Valley Road — ' Total abstinence? Yes.' 

"Answers from the report of 1881 : 

"Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Omaha Road — 'The use of 
intoxicating liquors involves instant dismissal.' 

"Wisconsin Central Road — ' Rule No. 2 of our book of instruction 
reads : " The use of intoxicating liquors of any kind by any employe 
is detrimental to himself and the interests of the company, and 
only those who abstain from its use will be employed." This rule is 
rigidly enforced/ 

"Wisconsin and Minnesota and Chippewa Falls and Western Road 
— ' Have the same rule as the Wisconsin Central ; substantially the 
same owners.' 

" Fond du Lac, Amboy, and Peoria Road — 'Drunkenness on duty 
will be considered sufficient cause for instant dismissal. This is 
enforced. ' : 

"And in Illinois. 

"Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Road — Rule 88 : 'Intoxication, or 
habitual or frequent use of intoxicating liquors will be sufficient reason 
for dismissal. Persons employed in running trains in any capacity 
who are known to drink intoxicating liquors will be forthwith dis- 
charged/ " 

These rules are fair samples of the rules of all the 
railroads and manufactories of this country from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. 

Fifty years ago, a man who employed laborers thought 
it necessary they should drink. 

To-day the great contractors and business men of 
this country give the preference to abstainers, and are 
frowning upon men who use intoxicating liquors. 

I recently saw in a newspaper published in this State, 
an advertisement for a bar-keeper. It was a request by 
a saloon-keeper for help ; the last words of the ad- 
vertisement said : " The applicant must be a total 
abstainer/' 

Suppose two young men of equal physical strength, 
mental force, and education, should contemplate going 
to Chicago, to seek situations in. business houses. A 
leading banker in that city wishes the services of a 
clerk. These young men learn of the vacant clerkship, 
and each wishes to secure the position. They know 
they must obtain it on the record of their past lives and 
business qualifications. What are the records of those 
lives ? 

At the commencement of his business career one of 
these young men made up his mind to win ; he counted 
the cost of success ; looked out over the future before 



250 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

him, and realized that to be successful he must have 
knowledge, health, and good habits. Carrying out this 
idea he took the money he earned in the store, bought 
books, and spent his leisure hours, few though they 
may have been, in study ; if he wanted pleasure he sought 
it in the society of respectable young men and ladies of 
his acquaintance ; when the Sabbath came he went 
to the Sunday-school, and, although considered old- 
fogyish, he was known to be an attendant at church. 

The other young man thought he would have a good 
time in the beginning of his business career, and then 
catch up. He took his money and went to the saloon 
to play billiards, drink beer, and have a good time. 

These young men, with such records, take steps to get 
the clerkship. The former goes to his minister and 
says : " Will you give me a certificate of character to 
the gentleman in Chicago ?" and the minister writes : 
" I know this young gentleman to be moral, honest, 
and truly worthy. He attends Sunday-school regularly, 
and is a member of my church ; he is sober, temperate, 
and industrious. ,, To this letter the minister signs his 
name. The young man then goes to his employer and 
says : " Will you give me a recommendation? " and his 
employer gives him a certificate to the same general 
effect as that received from his pastor. 

The other young man goes to the saloon-keeper with 
whom he has associated, and says : " I want a certain 
position in Chicago ; will you give me a certificate to 
the banker ?" The dram-seller writes : " He is a good 
fellow, and can play the best game of billiards of any 
man in the city. He can play seven-up and v/in five 
times out of six; he can drink more beer in the same 
length of time than any other man of my acquaintance. 
He is a bright, jolly man." The young man then goes 
to his employer and asks him for a recommendation, 
and he receives a certificate relating the same general 
facts. 

Both young men go to Chicago, ask for the banker, 
and lay their recommendations before him. Does it 
matter whether the president of the bank drinks 
beer or not? Whether he is an infidel or Christian? 
Whether he is a prohibitionist or license man ? No 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 25 1 

matter what his personal views or habits may be, he 
will hire the man who comes with credentials certifying 
to a record of total abstinence and morality. 

An acquaintance of mine wanted a clerk. The man 
was an infidel and an habitual drinker. A boy said to 

me, " Will you give me a credential to Mr. ?" I 

simply certified to the fact that I knew the youth ; 
that he was a good. Christian boy, a total abstainer, a 
member of the Good Templar lodge, and that he was 
thoroughly industrious, studious, and honest. The boy 
applied for the position. I, afterward learned that 
some five or six other boys applied for the same 
position. Some of the boys were reckless and fast. 
The boy to whom I gave the recommendation got the 
position. A few days afterward, passing down the 
street, I put my arm through that of the gentleman 
who had employed the boy I recommended, and said : 

" Mr. , tell me why you hired that boy ; he was a 

total abstainer and a Christian, and the other boys who 
applied for the position could drink beer, play cards, 
and disregard the Sabbath, which you approve. Why 
did yon hire the total abstainer? " 

"Oh," said he,' "such principles as he follows are 
good to have around a counting-room." 

Go where you will, up and down this nation to-day, 
the temperance work is rolling humanity steadily up- 
ward. The business man recognizes this truth, that 
the man who drinks liquor is injured intellectually, 
physically, and morally by such use. 

This is one line of advance. Look at another. 

The Rev. J. B. Dunn, the celebrated author of the 
" History of Temperance," gives a bill presented to and 
paid by one of the oldest churches of Hartford, Con- 
necticut. It was during the year 1784 — less than a 
hundred years ago. There had been an assembly of 
ministers to ordain a young aspirant for ministerial 
honors. The church had sent the visiting clergy to an 
inn at Hartford to be entertained, telling the innkeeper 
to present the bill to the church for payment. The 
bill was a copy of the original presented by the inn- 
keeper to the church for the expenses of the ministers, 
and is given in the record as follows : 



252 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

The South Society in Hartford, Conn., paid the following bill for 
the entertainment of the ministers at the ordination of a pastor : 

May 4, 1784 — To keeping ministers — £ s. d. 

2 mugs tody o 2 4 

5 segars o 5 10 

I pint wine 030 

May 5 — 

To 3 bitters o o 9 

To 3 breakfasts o 3 6 

To 15 boles punch 1 10 o 

To 24 dinners 1 16 o 

To 11 bottles wine 3 6 1 

To five mugs flip o 5 10 

To 3 boles punch o 6 o 

To 3 boles tody o 3 6 

£7 11 9 

The ministers' toddy and wine cost the church a little 
over twenty dollars for two days, and there were only 
thirteen ministers entertained, and liquors were far 
cheaper in those days than now. What would be 
thought of such a bill presented to a church in Illinois 
to-day, and paid by them without complaint ? 

Four years since, speaking in Lodi, Wisconsin, for the 
Order of Good Templars, at the conclusion of the meet- 
ing an old gentleman came up to me and said, " I want 
to tell you something. I am a superannuated Baptist 
minister." (I learned afterward that he was one of the 
most loved and honored men of that denomination in 
the State.) " I commenced preaching in Ilion, New 
York. While preaching there a young brother was to 
be ordained in Ogdensburg, in the northern part of the 
State. There were no railroads then. I was to go up 
the Mohawk River to Rome, then up the Black River ; 
another was to come from Oswego, another from Can- 
ada, and another from Plattsburg. We met on a cer- 
tain day, held a meeting in the afternoon, and another 
in the evening. At night I was to sleep with the 
brother from Oswego. After we went to our room I 
opened my satchel to get my Bible, but found that I 
had left it at the church. My companion said, ' Have 
my Bible/ and opened his satchel to get it. Under it 
were four or five bottles of whiskey. You ask me what 
he had it for ; if he had it to drink, and whether he 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 253 

offered it to me ? No, he did not ask me to drink with 
him, nor offer to drink any of it himself. I will tell 
you how he came to have it in his possession. His son 
ran a distillery, and as the father was to preach on this 
long trip through Canada and Northern New York, he 
had taken the whiskey along as samples, and acted as a 
commercial agent for the distillery on the trip, preach- 
ing and selling whiskey." 

A few weeks later I stood before an immense audi- 
ence in Northern New York, near where the incident 
was said to have occurred, and related the story. After 
the meeting was over a man came to me and said; 
" Why did you assail me ? " I said to him, " I do not 
know you." Said he, " I am the man who peddled the 
whiskey." Then he introduced himself. I called on 
him the next morning, and for more than an hour I 
was entertained by reminiscences, as he told me of the 
customs and practices of his early ministry. He said, 
" In that day ministers, deacons, class-leaders, and 
church members drank — in short, the drinking customs 
were almost universal." 

In 1835 a large distillery was run at Salem, Mass., by 
an old deacon. The Rev. George B. Cheever, D.D.j 
passed along the road and saw the sign, " Distillery — 
Corn wanted — Bibles to sell." This suggested his 
celebrated cartoon, in which he pictured devils as run- 
ning the distillery, and called it " Deacon Giles' Distil- 
lery." The coat fitted, and Dr. Cheever was arrested, 
tried by a Christian jury, convicted of malicious libel, 
and sent to jail. A close examination of the case con- 
vinces me that the verdict was based upon Dr. Chee- 
ver's statements against the Christian character of the 
deacon distiller. In that day ministers, church officials, 
and Christians not only used, but manufactured and 
sold, intoxicating drinks. The public did not look upon 
these acts as degrading Christian character, or incon- 
sistent with a Christian life. To-day the ministers of 
the Lord Jesus Christ are the veteran corps of our 
whole reform work. Other brigades, other corps, 
and other armies are in the fight, but the principal 
weight of the movement rests on the Christian centre. 
I have never yet, in the bitterest strife, called upon a 



254 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LiQUOR TRAFFIC. 

minister in Nebraska for assistance and been refused. 
As I go up and down through the State of Nebraska, I 
do not ask the question, " Is such a minister a temper- 
ance man ? " I know he is. I know he could not preach 
in our State if he was not. Even the denominations 
which in the East are apathetic toward the movement, 
are quite positive and aggressive in the West. A clergy- 
man who spoke in this State only a few weeks ago in 
favor of saloons was told by his church, the Episcopal, 
that his resignation would be accepted, and an opportu- 
nity was given him to step down and out, and he 
embraced it. 

Look at another line of advance. Fifty or sixty years 
ago the sale of liquor was open, and as common as the 
sale of tea, coffee, dry-goods, and groceries. It was 
piled up in every grocery-store, and men who sold dry- 
goods said they must have liquor to treat their custom- 
ers. It was not regarded as a disreputable business. 
It was not deemed necessary to screen the door of the 
grocery, where it was to be found, from the observation 
of the general public, and the business of selling was 
not regarded as of so injurious and deadly a nature 
that men must petition the city authorities, to be per- 
mitted to engage in its sale. 

Look at it now. In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
and Kansas, the whole business is outlawed. In license 
States like Nebraska everybody knows it is looked upon 
as disreputable to patronize a drunkard-factory, and 
he who engages in the sale is regarded as a bad man. 
To-day, in my State, the very fact that a man wants to 
sell liquor is in the eyes of the law prima facie evidence 
that he is a scoundrel. 

A man may come to Nebraska to-morrow and desire 
to take out a license to sell liquor. If he go to a city 
council and ask for a license, the very fact that he 
applies for such a license is deemed prima facie evidence 
that he is disreputable, dishonest, and, before the coun- 
cil can grant it, he must get thirty freeholders, residents 
of the ward wherein the saloon is to be located, to 
certify he is decent and moral. He must get a character 
made to order as you get a coat, and then, when he gets 
it to fit (I suppose our Greenback friends would call it 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 255 

a fiat character), the law believes every man who signed 
the petition lied, and says, despite the fact that the 
would-be drunkard-maker has their certificates, he must 
give a bond of five thousand dollars, signed by three 
good sureties, to indemnify the people for the evil his 
business will create. No man is now bold enough to 
stand up and defend the business upon its merits. The 
drunkard-makers themselves favor "judicious license 
laws." No man dares advocate taking the chains off 
this old curse and letting it go free. 

Look at another line of advance. There was a time 
in the history of this reform when everywhere, in almost 
every house in the land, people expected to find wine 
or some kind of liquor, on the table or on the sideboard. 
It was deemed useful and hospitable, and necessary on 
all occasions. 

Now, the custom of turning the parlor into a bar- 
room, and using a beautiful daughter as a bar-tender to 
manufacture drunkards, who will afterward curse the 
fair hands that tempted them to take the first glass, is 
rapidly becoming obsolete everywhere. 

These, ladies and gentlemen, are a few of the changes 
made by persistent work to educate the masses, to lift 
the fog of ignorance, and let in the sunlight of knowl- 
edge and scientific truth. The struggle has been 
severe, but no cause has ever had grander heroes. 

Years ago, when Dr. Hunt, who led the reform in 
the East, went on the platform, the common answer 
of the drunkard-makers was rotten eggs. At one time 
when eggs were thrown at him he stopped in his speech 
and said : " Gentlemen, let them come ; your arguments 
are just like your business. " 

I look back over the band of workers and wish I 
could mention them all — grand men and women who 
have stood shoulder to shoulder in the contest. What 
cause was ever supported by clearer heads and warmer 
hearts ! 

What has this work accomplished ? Fifty years ago 
the business world furnished liquor to its employes; 
to-day it makes abstinence from the use of liquor a 
rule for workmen. Fifty years ago the Church, by its 
example and influence, sustained the drink customs and 



256 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

trade ; to-day its leaders are fighting the traffic to the 
death. Fifty years ago the liquor traffic was respectable ; 
to-day it is either outlawed or a criminal bound with 
the chains of law. Fifty years ago society held it 
fashionable to furnish wine to guests ; to-day it is re- 
garded vulgar and low. 

Yes, the line of the reform has advanced ; but, while 
proud of the progress of public sentiment, we would 
not have you forget that all along the line of march of 
these years there are other evidences of successful, 
victorious work, made sacred by the memories of men 
whose redeemed spirits, now in heaven, look back to 
rejoice that this movement came to save ! 

Let me give you an instance : I addressed an audi- 
ence in a Western city some years ago. At the close of 
the talk, an old man — muddy, dirty, drunk — came and 
reached out his hand. His face was bloated and con- 
gested from the use of alcoholic liquors; his eyes were 
bleared and watery, his tongue was thick from indul- 
gence ; he was a wretched, terrible specimen of what 
liquor does for its victims. He said : " S-a-a-y, Mister, 
am — hie — go — go — in to er — hie— sign that are p-pledge, 
an — I am — hie — an' I'll keep it, or I'll — hie — bust." 

As I looked at him — poor, besotted wretch, with 
just the faintest trace of his once glorious manhood 
lingering in his determination to sign the pledge, and 
make one more effort for the restoration of his lost 
character and honor — I pitied him. One could not 
help seeing his physical and intellectual condition — 
native pride gone, stomach almost destroyed by drink, 
feebleness in every part of his physical organism. I 
took his hand and told him I hoped he would keep the 
pledge ; that I believed God would give him strength 
to stand. He signed and went away. The attention 
of some of the Good Templar friends was called to him. 
I went from that place, and it was more than a year 
before I returned. The first night after my return, I 
was speaking again, After the meeting, an old lady 
came to me and said: 

" I want to shake hands, and ask you if you will 
come and take tea with us to-morrow ? " 

"I think I can come/M replied. 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 257 

She went away. I did not recognize her. Turning 
to a minister who stood by, I asked : 

"Who was the lady?" ' 

"Why," said he, "you remember that old bummer 
who signed the pledge when you were here last year ? " 

" Yes," I answered, " did he keep it ? " 

" Yes, he did," was the reply ; " that lady is his wife ; 
he is now a member of my church." 

The next day I went to their home. The man and 
his wife were both there, and greeted me most cordi- 
ally. After a time the husband went to the business 
part of the city. When he had gone the wife said to 
me : " I wanted you to come so I could tell you how 
much my husband's reformation has done for me and 
my home, and to bid you God-speed in your work "; 
then she told the old, old story that every person who 
has ever worked to reform men has heard so often. 
A happy courtship and marriage, the sunlight of wife- 
hood and joys of motherhood ; a happy wife, busied 
with household cares, the pathway of life strewn with 
the flowers of hope and love. How the gentle voice 
of love, the happiness and thanksgiving had day after 
day thanked God for her husband, the best and bravest 
and noblest of men. How he had endeavored in the 
battle of life to shield and protect her from every dis- 
comfort and hardship. Then of the time when the 
husband had been enticed into a saloon and persuaded 
to drink his first glass ; how he fell into the horrible 
habit of drunkenness, and how she, thinking she might 
reclaim him, and hardly realizing the terrible character 
of the loathsome serpent which had stolen into her 
paradise and robbed it of its purity and happiness, 
had followed, pleading, praying, hoping, and working. 
" But," said she, " hope failed, my pleadings availed 
not, and my prayers seemed offered to a god of brass. 
Oh, human heart can hardly imagine what sorrow, 
what grief, what bitterness of soul was mine ! For 
fifteen years, fifteen years of a hell on earth, he drank 
almost incessantly ; every nickel he earned went to the 
saloon for drink, and he did not provide anything for 
our home. I did washing to support myself, till rheu- 
matism attacked me, and my hands became so I could 



258 THE PEOPLE VS. THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

not use them. At last I could not work more, and 
then the poorhouse door stood open to me. Per- 
haps you will think I was wicked, but, Mr. Finch, I 
have often gone to bed at night praying God I might 
never wake in the morning. During my whole life I 
had tried to do my duty, at least to be respectable, 
and the thought of dying a pauper in a poorhouse was 
enough to drive me mad. Kind women, God bless 
them, watched with and looked after me while I was 
sick. It was at that time John signed the pledge. He 
came home from the meeting and went directly to bed. 
The next morning he rose early ; it was his usual cus- 
tom to rise early and go down-town to get his drink, 
but that morning I heard him building a fire. I couldn't 
think what it meant. He went out of doors and soon 
came back, and I heard him filling the tea-kettle ; then 
he said to me : 

" i Mary, where is the hammer ? ' 
" I asked him why he wanted the hammer. 
" ' I want to fix the door-steps out here/ 
" The door-steps had been broken a long time. He 
had tumbled over them drunk many a time, and never 
thought of fixing them. As soon as he wanted to fix 
the steps it flashed into my mind what he had done, 
and I asked, l John, have you signed the pledge?' and 
he said, ' Yes, Mary, and with God helping me, as they 
say down at the meeting, I am going to keep it/ Per- 
haps I am getting into my dotage, but the tears of joy 
came, and calling him to me I put my arms around his 
neck and kissed away the dark memories of the past. 
Since then the shadow of the pauperhouse has not 
darkened my home, and with my old-time love I feel 
a girl again. The Good Templars have given me back 
my old lover, to stand up in his redeemed manhood by 
my shoulder, to love me, sustain me, to go down to the 
grave and up into heaven with me, and I will ever 
thank and bless them/ , 

This is but one of thousands of cases. There is 
hardly a temperance organization in America, but has 
in it saved men snatched from the downward road. 

Thus history proves the practicability of the move- 
ment. The reform found the business world opposed tc 



THE PRACTICABILITY OF THE MOVEMENT. 259 

it, and by facts and arguments the business world has 
been convinced that total abstinence is right. The re- 
form found tippling regarded as moral ; by facts and 
arguments the moral world has been convinced that tip- 
pling is the A-B-C school of drunkenness. The reform 
found the State blind to the nature of this cut-throat 
traffic ; by facts and arguments the eyes of the State 
have been opened, and it has everywhere chained the 
traffic and in some instances killed it. The reform 
found thousands of men on the road to ruin, and saved 
many of them. 

Yes; it is a grand, a glorious success! No other 
movement can show a more glorious record of victory 
against fearful odds, and in so short a time. As we go 
forward encouraged, let us remember that the reform is 
greater than any man or organization of men. The 
men who stand on the platform are simply aids. 
Every worker has a task to do, and all our labors are 
essential to accomplish the work before us. Let us 
stand shoulder to shoulder in the places that are ready 
and open for us, pressing forward side by side on the 
battle-fields of this reform, firm and unwavering in the 
faith that God will give victory to the right, and that 
truth and purity shall triumph over vice and error. 
But let not this faith make us blind. The enemy will 
die hard. Every defence that avarice, lust, and crime 
can suggest, may be expected. Every means to trick 
the workers will be used. Local option, high license, 
civil damage are all subterfuges of the enemy, to post- 
pone the inevitable hour when a prohibitory law will 
pronounce its death sentence. 

Be not deceived ! Prohibition in the National and 
State Constitutions made effective by a live, vital politi- 
cal party, pledged to carry out its provisions as a matter 
of principle, not as a matter of policy, is the only remedy 
for this most terrible of social and political evils — the 
liquor traffic ! Stand by this position, though apos 
tates and cowards cry compromise, and victory will 
come to bless our homes and our nation ! 



National Temperance Society. 

>h 

T. L. CUYLER, D.D., Wm. D. POKTER, J. N. STEARNS, 

President. Treasurer. Cor. Sec. and Pub. Agent. 

THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, organized in 1865 for the purpose of sup- 
plying a sound and able temperance literature, have already stereotyped and published 
over one thousand publications of all sorts and sizes, from the one-page tract up to the 
bound volume of 1,000 pages. This list comprises books, tracts, and pamphlets, containing 
essays, stories, sermons, argument, statistics, history, etc., upon every phase of the ques- 
tion. Special attention has been given to the department 

FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARIES. 

One hundred and fifty-two volumes have already been issued, written by some of the best 
authors in the land. These have been carefully examined and approved by the Publication 
Committee of the Society, representing the various religious denominations and temperance 
organizations of the country, which consists of the following members : 

PETER CARTER, Rev. A. G. LAWSON, A. D. VAIL, D.D., 

Rev. W. T. SABINE, T. A. BROUWER, R. R. SINCLAIR, 

A. A. ROBBINS, D. C. EDDY, D.D., JAMES BLACK, 

Rev. HALSEY MOORE, J. S. CHADWICK, D.D., J. N. STEARNS, 

Rev. ALFRED TAYLOR. 

The volumes have been cordially recommended by leading clergymen of all denominations 
and by numerous Ecclesiastical bodies and Temperance Organizations all over the land. 
They should be in every Sunday-school Library. The following is a list of some of the 
latest and the best issued: 

Susan's Sheaves. By Mrs. C. M. Livingston, i2mo, 364 pages $1.25 

Iff ama 9 s Stories. By Laura J. Rittenhouse. i2mo, 96 pages .50 

Brooklet Series. By Miss L. Penney. 6 vols., each 25 cents ; set... 1.50 
Story of Rasmus ; or, the Making of a Jflaii. By Julia 

McNair Wright. i2mo, 338 pages 1.35 

Bird. Angel (Xlie). By Miss M. A. Paull. i2mo, 147 pages .75 

Dave Marquand. By Annette L. Noble. i2mo, 357 pages. ... 1.25 

W^et It Alone. By Edward Carswell. i2mo, 294 pages l.OO 

"Under lian. By Miss M. E. Winslow. i2mo, 325 pages 1.35 

The Old. Tavern and Other Stories. By Mary Dwinell 

Chellis. i2mo, 386 pages 1.35 

Miss Helinda 9 s Friends. By Mary Dwinell Chellis. i2mo, 360 

pages 1 .25 

One More Chance. By Mrs. S. M. I. Henry. i2mo, 598 pages 1.50 

The Hercules Brand. By A. M. Cummings. i2mo, 445 pages.. 1.50 
The Dragon and the Tea-Kettle. By Mrs. J. McNair Wright. 

i2mo, 288 pages l.OO 

Miss Janet's Old Mouse. By Annette L. Noble. i2mo, 428 pp. 1.35 
Spinning- Wheel of Tamworth (The). By Rev. W. A. 

Smith. i2mo, 206 pages .©O 

53: aunt ed Islands. By M. E. Wilmer. 121110, 383 pages 1.35 

Millerton People. By Faye Huntington. i2mo, 313 pages .... l.OO 

Profit and ILoss. By Mary D. Chellis. i2mo, 387 pages 1.25 

Congressman Stanley's Fate. By Harriet A. Harp. 121110, 

403 pages J _ L . 1.S5 

How Billy Went Up in the World. By Annette L. Noble. 

121110, 396 pages 1.S5 

Competitive Workmen. By Faye Huntington. 121110, 272 pp. . . l.OO 
Hannah : One of the Strong" Women. By Mrs. J. McNair 

Wright. i2mo, 290 pages l.OO 

Address J. N. STEARNS, Publishing Agent 

58 Reade Street, New York City. 



LATEST PUBLICATIONS. 

The National Temperance Society has recently added the follow* 
Ing to its list of cheap publications, in pamphlet form. At the prices at 
which these are issued, they should have the widest possible circulation. 

Origin of tlie Maine Law, and of Prohibitory Legisla- 
tion. i2mo, large size, 52 pages # I0 

This is a pamphlet compiled by D. P. Appleton, Esq., giving an able and exhaustive 
report of General James Appleton, a member of the Legislature of Maine and chairman 
of the Committee on License Laws in 1837. It ia a remarkable document, clear, logical, 
convincing, and complete. All histories of the Maine law leaving this out are incom- 
plete. Mr. Appleton was born in Ipswich, Mass., in 1786, and in 1S32 wrote several 
articles for the Salem Gazette of wonderful vigor and ability, which are gathered to- 
gether for the first time and printed in this little pamphlet. They dissect the license 
system, expose its weakness and wickedness, and present unanswerable arguments for 
prohibition. 

High License Weighed in the Balances 

and . By Herrick Johnson, D.D* i2mo, 12 pages, thick paper, 

with cover , 05 

Cheap campaign edition, 3 cents ; per hundred, $2.50. 
A keen and logical argument on the High License Question, by Rev. Dr. Herrick 
ohnson. Put in convenient and cheap form it should be used as a campaign document 
everywhere, to refute the claims of the advocates of High License. 

Prohibition. By Petroleum V. Nasby (D. R. Locke). 121x10, 
24 pages 10 

This is putting in pamphlet form the masterly article of Mr. Locke's (P. V. NasHy), 
which appeared in the October number of the North American Review on Prohibition. 
Exhaustive and able, it is one of the best and most convincing arguments for the Pro- 
hibition of the Liquor-Trafflc yet presented. 

The Temperance Alphabet. 8vo 16 pages. By 

Edward Carswell .... .10 

A new and cheap edition of the popular * 4 Temperance Alphabet," designed by the 
children's friend, Edward Carswell. The work is printed on fine paper in best black ink 
and style, with illustrated cover, and is just the thing for the little folks. The sketches 
are very attractive, the alphabet letters large and plain, and the mottoes teach the 
^ssons of temperance. 

Alcohol and Science. By Wm. Hargreaves, M.D. 
i2mo, 366 pages. Cloth, $1.50 ; cheap paper edition 50 

A cheap edition, pamphlet form, of the excellent $500 prize volume of Dr. Wm. Har- 
greaves. entitled " Alcohol and Science," giving the large work, 366 12mo pages, for 50 
cents. This places the book within the reach of all, and it should bo in every home. 
Divided into ten parts, as follows : Part 1. What is Alcohol ! 1 art 2. What becomes of 
Alcohol when Ingested t Part 3. Physiological Action of Alcohol. Part 4. Is Alcohol c 
Poison f Part 5. Is Alcohol Pood ? Part 6. Does Alcohol Sustain Vitality ? Part 7. 
Disease caused by Alcohol. Part 8. Nervous Diseases from Alcohol. Part 9. Alcohol: 
its effect on Progeny. Part 10. Is Alcohol a Medicine f It touches all phases of the 
scientific physiological effects of alcohol. 

Talmage on Rum. By Rev. T. De Witt Talmage. 121110, 
114 pages. Cloth, 50 cents ; paper 25 

Bight sermons and addresses by Rev. T. De Witt Talmage on rum and tobacco, giving 
itartling statistics, arguments, and appeals in his most vigorous style. They show " The 
Evil Beast," " Red Dragon, 1 * l * Arch-fiend of the Nations " to be the " Worst Enemy of 
the Working-Classes," and " High License the Monopoly of Abomination," etc., etc 

National Temperance Almanac, 1887. By 

J. N. Stearns. i2mo, 72 pages M 

This admirable handbook is now ready for 1887. Full of interesting facts, figure* 
statistics, illustrations, etc. Printed on fine tinted paper. 

All the above sent post-paid on receipt of price. Address 

J. N. STEARNS, Publishing Agent, 

*8 Reade Street. New Yor 






THE PEOPLE 



VERSUS 




THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 

SPEECHES OF 

JOHN B. PINCH, 

DELIVERED IN THE 

PROHIBITION CAMPAIGNS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA. 



» ^^ ^ TWENTY-FOURTH (REVISED) EDITION. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. ■ N. STEARNS. 



EDITED BY CHARLES ARNOLD McCULLY. 




NEW YORK: 

Published by the R. W. G. Lodge, 

B. F. PARKER, R. W. G. Secretary. 



VOTERS OF, 

exas, C^)ennessee, Oregon, ana West Virginia 



-*-+ 



The Legislatures of your States have submitted to you for adoption 
or rejection, amendments to your State Constitutions, prohibiting 
the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. 

The amendments simply act as indictments to bring the liquor 
traffic into the court of the people for trial, 

The hope of the maintenance of a democratic Republic must be 
founded on the intelligence of the people. Any institution which 
breaks down the intelligence or degrades the morality of the citizen 
is an enemy of our free institutions. 

The alcoholic liquor traffic is charged with crimes against the 
citizen, with crimes against business, with crimes against the School, 
with crimes against the Church, with crimes against the Home 
with crimes against the Ballot-box, and with crimes against the 
Government. 

To aid you in the investigation of the questions which will arise 
in the amendment campaigns, we send you this book. It will to 
some extent explain why the Good Templars and Sons of Temper- 
ance ask the destruction of the liquor traffic. The Good Templars 
and the Sons stand together in this struggle. They are the strongest 
temperance organizations on earth. Years of practical work, to 
overcome the evils of intemperance, have convinced them that all 
moral work is largely nullified by the presence and influence of the 
licensed bar-room. In behalf of a higher, better, and truer civiliza- 
tion, we ask you to investigate the issues involved, and then to vote 
against the legalized drunkard-factory. 

Respectfully yours, 

JOHN B. FINCH, 

Right Worthy Grand Templar of the Good Templars. 

EUGENE H. CLAPP, 
Most Worthy Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance. 



THE YOUTH'S TEMPERANCE BANNER. 

The National Temperance Society and Publication House publish a beautifully- 
illustrated four-page Monthly Paper for Children and Youth, Sabbath-schools, and 
Juvenile Temperance Organizations. Each number contains several choice en- 
gravings, a piece of music, and a great variety of articles from the pens of the best 
writers for children in America. 

Its object is to make the temperance work and education a part of the religious 
culture and training of the Sabbath-school and family-circle, that the children may 
be early taught to shun the intoxicating cup, and walk in the path of truth, soberness, 
and righteousness. 

The following are some of the writers for The Banner : Mrs. J. P. Ballard 
(Kruna), Mary D. Chellis, Mrs. Nellie H. Bradley, Mrs. S. M. I. Henry, Ernest Gil- 
more, Edward Carswell, Geo. W. Bungay, Miss A. L. Noble, Faye Huntington, 
Hope Ledyard, Miss Julia Colman, Mrs. Helen E. Brown, Mrs. E. J. Richmond, 
Rev. Alfred Taylor, Mrs. J. McNair Wright, Rev. E. A. Rand, Mrs. M. A. Kidder, etc. 

MONTHLY AND SEMI-MONTHLY. 

The regular Mouchly Edition will continue to be published as before, unchanged in 
character except for the better, and specially designed for Sunday-school distribution. 
A Semi-Monthly Edition will also be published for those who desire it. 

TERMS, IN ADVANCE, INCLUDING POSTAGE. 

MONTHLY EDITION. 

Single copy, one year ♦ $0.25 

One hundred copies to. one address 12.00 

For any number of copies less than one hundred and over four, to one address, at 
the rate of 

12 cents per Year. 

SEMI-MONTHLY EDITION. 

Single copy, twice a month, one year — SO .10 

One hundred copies, twice a month, to one address 24.00 

For any number of copies less than one hundred and over four, to one address, at 
the rate of 24 cents per year. 



++ 



The Hational Temperance Adyocate. 

The National Temperance Society and Publication House publish a monthly paper 
devoted to the interests of the Temperance Reform, which contains articles upon 
every phase of the movement from the pens of some of the ablest writers in America, 
among whom are : T. L. Cuyler, D.D., A. M. Powell, Prof. J. C. Price, M. L. Hol- 
brook, M.D., Mrs. E. J. Richmond, Ernest Gilmore, Mrs. J. McNair Wright, Geo. W. 
Bungay, Rev. J. M. Van Buren, Rev. A. Willey, Mrs. F. M. Bradley, Mary Dwinell 
Chellis, Miss Julia Colman, Mrs. J. P. Ballard, etc., etc. 

It also contains a history of the progress of the movement from month to month 
in all the States, which is of great value to every worker in the cause and to those who 
are in any way interested in the work, and no pains will be spared to make this full 
of the most valuable information to all classes in the community. 

Terms (cash in advance), including postage : One dollar per year for single copies ; 
ten copies to one address, $9.00 ; all over ten copies at 90 cents per copy. 

All orders should be addressed to 

J. N. STEARNS, Publishing Agent, 

53 Eeade Street, 3iTe-w "Z"or3s. 



Constitutional Amendment Campaign. 

CHEAP PROHIBITION LITERATURE. Paper Edition. 

The National Temperance Society has published the following- valuable 
and important publications upon the Prohibition of the liquor traffic, which should 
have a wide distribution in view of the vote by the people for or against the drink 
traffic. 

Constitutional Amendment Manual. By J. Ellen Foster. i2mo, 
ioo pp. Containing Argument, Appeal, .Directions, Explanations, Form of 
Petition, Constitutions, Formula of Amendment, Modes of operation in differ- 
ent States, together with Constitutional Amendment Catechism, prepared by- 
Mrs. Foster, the talented Iowa lawyer, and covering the entire question. Im- 
portant for every temperance worker in the land $0.25 

The Prohibitionist's Text-K©olt. i2mo, 312 pp. This volume contains 
the most valuable arguments, statistics, testimonies, and appeals, showing the in- 
iquity of the license system and the right and duty of prohibitionists. It is an 
invaluable handbook for all friends of prohibition. .50 

"Worse than Wasted. By Wm. Hargreaves, M.D. i2mo, 98 pp. Giving 
valuable and startling figures from census and other official reports, showing the 
relation of intoxicating drinks to labor, trade, and the general prosperity of the 
country ,30 

Alcohol and. the State. A discussion of the problem of law as applied to the 
liquor-traffic. By Robert C. Pitman, LL.D., Associate Judge of Superior Court 
of Massachusetts. 121110, 411 pp .50 

Talmage on Rum. By T. De Witt Talmage, D.D. i2mo, 114 pp. Consisting 
of Eight Sermons by this eminent pulpit orator on the twin evils of rum and 
tobacco .25 

Prohibition Does Prohibit; or, Prohibition Not a Failure. By J. N. 

Stearns. 121110, 120 pp . . . . .10 

Prohibition, Constitutional and Statutory. By John B. Finch. 

i2mo, 12 pp .05 

Constitutional Amendment on the Manufacture and Sale of 
Intoxicating Liquors. By Hon. H. W. blair. i2tno, 4b pp., witn 
covers, 10 cents, #7.00 per hundred ; thin paper, 6 cents: per hundred 4.00 

The Great Drink- Waste Diagram. 22x28 inches. Paper, 10 cents; 

cloth .25 

Prohibition. By Petroleum V. Nasby (D. R. Locke). i2mo, 24 pp. This is 
putting in pamphlet form the masterly article of Mr. Locke's (P, V. Nasby), 
which appeared in the October Number of the North American Review on 

Prohibition... .10 

High License Weighed in the Balances and— . By Herrick Johnson, 

D.D. i2mo, 12 pp. Cheap edition, $2.50 per hundred ; with cover, per copy.. . .05 
The Prohibition Songster. Compiled by J. N. Stearns, This is a new col- 
lection of words and music for Temperance Gatherings, with some of the most 
soul-stirring songs ever published. Music by some of the best composers, and 
words by our best poets. i2mo, 64 pp. $1.50 per dozen ; $12.00 per hundred ; 
single copies , .15 

Four-page 12mo Tracts, $3.00 per Thousand; Postage 45 cents 

per 1,000 additional. 

No. 257. Temperance and Over-Produc- 
tion. 

44 258. Is it Constitutional? 

44 259. Christendom and the Liquor 
Crime. 

" 260. The Saloon in Politics. 

One-page Handbills. $1.00 per Thousand; Postage 30 cents per 

1,000 additional. 

No. 102. Riding Down-Hill on a Jug. 

k * 103. Licensed Saloons. 

u 104. Is it Right? 

41 105. The Mother of Crimes. 

44 106. Governors of States on Prohi- 
bition. 

44 107. Appeal to the Colored Race. 

44 109. Senator John H. Reagan on Pro- 
hibition. 



No. 220. The Responsibility of Citizens 
for the Results of the Rum 
Traffic. 
44 227. An Argument for Constitutional 
Prohibition. 



No 


20. 


u 


22. 
29. 


it 


31. 




42. 
90. 


99. 



The Pistol and the Bottle. 

Close the Bars. 

Thirty Reasons for the Prohi- 
bition of the Liquor Traffic. 

Constitutional Amendment. 

Constitutional Prohibition. 

The Great Drink Waste. 

Prohibition and Business Pros- 
perity. 



Sent by mail on receipt of price. 

Address, J. NI STEARNS, Publishing Agent, 

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